BURKINA FASO OFFICIALS SAY 28 PEOPLE FOUND SHOT DEAD

Tue 03 January 2023:

The bodies of 28 people were discovered in northwest Burkina Faso over the weekend, according to the government, who added that an investigation was underway as speculation about who was responsible grew.

“The government was informed of an incident at Nouna … during the night of December 30-31,” a government statement said late on Monday. It added that an investigation had been begun into the matter.

The CISC (Collective against Impunity and Stigmatisation of Communities) organisation denounced the violence as “reprisals targeting civilians” by armed civilians claiming to be members of an auxiliary force who “freely engage in organised looting and targeted abuses of [the] civilian population”.

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Attacks on civilians and security personnel have intensified recently, particularly in the northern and eastern provinces bordering Mali and Niger, which are engaged in conflict with armed groups.

Burkina Faso, which has 21 million people, is one of the world’s poorest nations despite having significant gold reserves.

Since 2015, the nation in West Africa has served as the focal point of a bloody insurgency that originated in Mali, a neighboring country. In the Sahel region, thousands have died, and over two million people have been uprooted and forced to live in temporary settlements.

Due to the government’s incapacity to stop the attacks, there were two military takeovers this year, with each military leader pledging to prioritize security.

However, armed groups frequently attack it, cutting off large portions of its territory. Some of the hardest-hit areas of the country are in the east and the Sahel, where insurgents have surrounded towns and restrict civilian movement.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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