At least 25 people have died, including three police officers, in an alleged terrorist attack perpetrated over the weekend in the province of Séno, in northern Burkina Faso. “The provisional assessment of this despicable and barbaric attack shows 25 deaths, including 22 civilians and three policemen, injuries and property damage“, Lieutenant Colonel Rodolphe Sorgho, governor of the Sahel region, explained on Monday, before adding that “armed terrorist groups attacked Bani” on Saturday afternoon. Likewise, Sorgho has offered, on behalf of the Government, his condolences to the families of the deceased, has wished a speedy recovery to the injured and has promised actions to secure the town.
Burkina Faso, led by a military junta since the January coup against the then president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, has generally experienced a significant increase in insecurity since 2015, which has caused a wave of internally displaced persons and refugees to other countries in the region.
The attacks, the work of both the affiliate of Al Qaeda as that of the Islamic State in the region, they have also contributed to an increase in intercommunal violence and have caused self-defense groups to flourish, to which the Burkinabe government has added “volunteers” to help in the fight against terrorism.