Over 100 dead in attack on anti-jihadist militia in Burkina Faso

A hundred civilians belonging to the anti-jihadist militias Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland were killed Friday evening to Saturday in the city of Solhan, in northern Burkina Faso, in the bloodiest attack on record in this African country since early 2015. a wave of terrorist violence, local security sources reported.

“The night from Friday to Saturday, armed individuals carried out a deadly raid on Solhan, in Yagha province. The toll, still provisional, is 100 dead, men and women of different ages“He told the AFP a source of security services. According to other local sources, the attack first targeted an army civilian support post and then the homes of residents, who were executed.

The attack began late Friday and continued throughout this morning in the town of Solhan. “We always hear explosions. The army intervenes “, said witnesses to the clashes.

Solhan is 14 kilometers from Sebba, the capital of the province and was scene of several incidents since the beginning of the year. February 13, the second deputy mayor of the city was kidnapped for three weeks by a group of bandits, from which he eventually escaped.

The Volunteers in defense of the homeland It is a militia that fights against the jihadist attackers who have sown terror in rural areas of Burkina.

Local humanitarian organizations, such as the Observatory for Human Dignity, denounce that the group has acted on certain occasions as “Death squads, sowing desolation under the sign of the fight against terrorism by carrying out summary executions of civilians, in particular of the Peul ethnic group, also called Peul.

Last April, two Spaniards and an Irish citizen were killed by an armed group in eastern Burkina Faso.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Spanish Government, Arancha González Laya, reported at a press conference that the bodies of the Spaniards were found in the area of ​​the attack. They have been identified as David Beriain and Roberto Fraile, both journalists making a documentary.

The three victims and a member of the Burkinabè security forces were reported missing after a attack by unidentified armed persons against a mixed patrol of the anti-poaching unit in the province of Kompienga (south-east).

Local media reported that the attack left three injured and four missing, but it was later confirmed that the two Spaniards and the Irishman had been executed by their captors.

The attack, carried out near the town of Dad, capital of the province, has also settled with the theft of weapons and equipment by the attackers. Among the equipment are two vehicle-mounted machine guns, a drone, twelve motorcycles and frequency receivers.

Eastern and Northern Burkina Faso suffered a increased insecurity in recent years, especially because of the peak of attacks by jihadist groups, including the branch of Al-Qaeda in the Sahel, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), which also caused an increase in intercommunal clashes.

Insurgent forces are holding foreign hostages in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

(With information from AFP, Europa Press and Reuters)

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