The attack occurred on Monday morning in Djibo, a city under jihadist blockade for three months, in northern Burkina Faso. “The 14th Combined Arms Regiment of Djibo faced a terrorist attack which targeted its base”, announced the general staff of the Burkinabe army. “The provisional balance sheet established shows 10 soldiers who fell during the fighting and around fifty wounded who were taken care of,” he adds. The press release states that “elements of the regiment valiantly responded to direct and indirect fire from the enemy who came in large numbers”.
“On the enemy side, at least 18 bodies of terrorists were counted during search operations which are still in progress”, according to the staff. He specifies that “air reinforcements have been deployed in the area to ensure rescue and response operations”.
Security sources indicated that “the attack began shortly before 5 a.m. (local time, 7 a.m. in Paris) with shelling on the barracks” military. “Other strategic facilities in the city have also been targeted,” according to the same sources.
Critical situation in the agglomeration
The testimonies reported a critical situation in the agglomeration of Djibo, which has 300,000 inhabitants – including many displaced people – the capital of the Sahel region landlocked in the north of Burkina and where famine threatens. On September 26, a supply convoy bound for the city was attacked by armed men. The attack, claimed by Al-Qaeda, officially killed 37 people, including 27 soldiers. Seventy truck drivers remain missing, according to their union.
This attack served as the catalyst for the September 30 coup, perpetrated by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, which overthrew Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. It was the second coup in Burkina Faso in eight months, the putschists each time citing the deterioration of the security situation in this country, which has been plagued by jihadist violence for seven years.
Invested on October 21 as president of the transition by the Constitutional Council, Captain Traoré assured that their “objectives are none other than the reconquest of the territory occupied by these hordes of terrorists”. Jihadist groups control approximately 40% of Burkinabe territory.
Burkina Faso has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group. These regular attacks, initially concentrated in the north before spreading to the rest of the country, particularly the east, have caused thousands of deaths and forced some two million people to flee their homes.