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05-06-2021
By SJA Jafri + Agencies
OUAGADOUGOU: Armed assailants belong with an anti-Shia terrorist organization (also known as Taliban, an African form of Daesh/ ISIS/ ISIL/ IS Boko Haram) have killed about 100 civilians in an overnight attack on a village in northern Burkina Faso, a Western African country.
The attackers struck during the night on Friday, killing residents of the village of Solhan in Yagha province bordering Niger, the government said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the attackers also burned homes and a market but neither none of one local African, national or international media outlet flashed about the details of attackers or persons those were killed by anti-Shia terrorists’ whereabouts, independent sources told PMI.
It described the attackers as terrorists but no group claimed responsibility.
The government declared a 72-hour period of national mourning. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore called the attack “barbaric.”
Sohlan, a small community around 15 kilometers from Sebba, the main city in Yagha province, has been hit with numerous attacks in recent years.
Press Media of India (PMI) has already been reported that hundreds of armed members of anti-Shia organizations like Daesh, ISIS/ ISIL/ Taliban and Boko Haram have shifted to African counties from Central and South Asian regions, Arab counties especially Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Kuwait and Uzbekistan a couple of months ago.
On May 14, Defence Minister Cheriff Sy and military top brass visited Sebba to assure people that life had returned to normal, following a number of military operations.
Attacks by fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) group in West Africa’s Sahel region have risen sharply since the start of the year, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, with civilians bearing the brunt.
This is the deadliest attack recorded in Burkina Faso since the West African country was overrun by fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State about five years ago, said Heni Nsaibia, senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
“It is clear that militant groups have shifted up gears to aggravate the situation in Burkina Faso, and moved their efforts to areas outside the immediate reach of the French-led counter-terrorism coalition fighting them in the tri-state border region,” he said.
Despite the presence of more than 5,000 French troops in the Sahel, violence is increasing. Burkina Faso’s ill-equipped army has struggled to contain the spread of violence.
Last year, the government enlisted the help of volunteer militiamen to help the army but they have incurred retaliation by the rebels who attack them and the communities they help.
Armed groups have driven religious and ethnic tensions between farming and herding communities in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to boost recruitment among marginalized communities.
The worsening violence in the wider Sahel region has led to one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises, UN agencies said last week.
The violence in Burkina Faso has displaced more than 1.14 million people in just over two years, while the poor arid country is also hosting some 20,000 refugees from neighboring Mali who are seeking safety from violence.
