Armed assailants killed more than 100 people in an attack on a village in northern Burkina Faso, the government said on Saturday, burning houses and leaving many more injured in one of the deadliest assaults the West African nation has seen in years.
The attackers struck early Saturday morning, first at a gold mine near the village of Sobha, near the border with Niger, according to Rida Lyammouri, a Washington-based expert, before then going after civilians. They also attacked the village market, the government said in a statement.
“It’s definitely one of the deadliest attacks in Burkina Faso in years,” said Mr. Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank.
Burkina Faso and its neighbors have faced a resurgence of extremist violence in recent years, much of it carried out by jihadists linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Once one of the most stable nations in West Africa, Burkina Faso has been trapped in spiraling violence since jihadist groups claimed their first attacks, in 2015. Since then, the country has faced hundreds of attacks, some carried out by jihadist groups and others by local rebels.
The assailants have stormed a number of villages in the region known as Liptako-Gourma, a border area between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where the attack on Saturday took place.
Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, Burkina Faso’s president, declared a 72-hour period of national mourning, calling the attack a “despicable act.” The government described Saturday’s assailants as terrorists, but no group has yet claimed responsibility.
Saturday’s attack occurred in an area where an Al Qaeda-affiliated group, known by the initials J.N.I.M., usually operates. Although the group is not known to attack civilians at this magnitude, according to Mr. Lyammouri, it has targeted family members of a local self-defense group in recent months.
After France began a military intervention in 2013 to counter jihadist violence in Mali, many members of the remaining militant groups, including affiliates of Al Qaeda, moved south near the border with Burkina Faso.
The violence that emerged from the groups’ move has fueled one of the fastest-growing displacement crises in the world, with more than 1.2 million people forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs body. The country is also hosting some 20,000 refugees from neighboring Mali who are seeking safety from jihadist attacks.
Burkina Faso’s military has been accused of failing to protect civilians, and soldiers have also killed a growing number of civilians, stoking the resentment of local populations.
Saturday’s attack comes months after attackers killed 137 people in coordinated raids on villages in southwestern Niger.
Several foreigners have also been taken hostage or killed in Burkina Faso in recent years. In 2019, two French soldiers were killed in a raid to rescue four hostages — two Frenchmen, an American and a South Korean citizen. In April, two Spanish journalists and an Irish ranger were also killed in an ambush in southeastern Burkina Faso, near the border with Benin.
