Burkina Faso

OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 6 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Suspected jihadists killed 14 soldiers in an attack in northern Burkina Faso, the defence ministry said, in the latest bloodshed to hit the region plagued by Islamist violence.

“The military detachment of Yirgou” in the Centre-Nord region’s Barsalogho department was “the target of a terrorist attack” around 0500 GMT on Monday, junior defence minister General Aime Barthelemy Simpore said.

OUAGADOUGOU, Aug 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 13 jihadists have been killed and a “terrorist logistics site” destroyed in a response to armed attacks in northern and eastern Burkina Faso, the west African country’s army
said.

  On Sunday, an air and land operation was mounted following an attack on the Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP) militia in Beleyanga in the Sahel region, said a statement from the Burkinabe chief of staff.

  The military was able to “neutralise around 10 terrorists, destroy weapons and about 15 motorbikes”, it said.

OUAGADOUGOU, Aug 5 (Reuters) - An armed group in northern Burkina Faso killed 30 civilians, army soldiers and pro-government militiamen in a series of attacks near the border with Niger, the defence ministry said on Thursday.

The unidentified assailants struck villages near the town of Markoye around midday on Wednesday and then attacked security forces responding to the raids later that afternoon, the ministry said in a statement.

DORI, Burkina Faso (AP) — Awoken by gunshots in the middle of the night, Fatima Amadou was shocked by what she saw among the attackers: children.

Guns slung over their small frames, the children chanted “Allahu akbar,” as they surrounded her home in Solhan town in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region. Some were so young they couldn’t even pronounce the words, Arabic for “God is great,” said the 43-year-old mother.

OUAGADOUGOU, July 3 (Reuters) - Thousands took to the streets of Burkina Faso's capital on Saturday to call for a tougher government response to a wave of jihadist attacks that has destabilised the West African country in recent years.

Some had travelled hundreds of kilometres to attend the opposition-led demonstration in Ouagadougou, where protesters waved the red and green Burkinabe flag and blew whistles.

DORI, Burkina Faso, June 21 (Reuters) - Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie visited on Sunday a refugee camp in Burkina Faso housing refugees fleeing jihadist violence in Mali, and praised the country for welcoming the displaced despite its limited resources and battling its own insurgency.

Burkina Faso, like its neighbours Niger and Mali, is reeling from violent attacks by militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that have killed thousands and displaced millions in the three countries.

(Reuters) --- Two years after local emir Djibril Diallo fled his home in northern Burkina Faso following death threats from Islamist militants, he received an unexpected request: to return and take part in peace talks with the same people who wanted him dead.

Adama Ouedraogo, deputy mayor of Diallo's hometown of Thiou, called him in January to help negotiate an end to years of attacks by jihadists against local militias and civilians that forced thousands of people to flee the area.

(Reuters) --- Armed assailants killed around 100 civilians in an overnight raid on a village in northern Burkina Faso, the government said on Saturday, as the region faces a worsening wave of jihadist violence.

The provisional death toll given by the government made it the country's deadliest attack in recent years.

The attackers struck during the night on Friday, killing residents of the village of Solhan in Yagha province bordering Niger. They also burned homes and the market, the government said in a statement.

KAYA, Burkina Faso (AP) — In the more than 15 years Salomon Tibiri has been offering spiritual succor as a military pastor in Burkina Faso, he’s never fielded so many calls from anxious soldiers and their relatives as in recent years, when the army found itself under attack by Islamic extremist fighters.

“Before the crisis there was more stability,” Tibiri said, seated in a military camp church in the city of Kaya, in the hard-hit Center-North region. “Now (the soldiers) are busier, and when you approach them you feel their stress — much more stress.”

OUAGADOUGOU, April 6 (Xinhua) -- At least three gendarmes and four defense volunteers were killed in an ambush on Monday afternoon in the eastern province of Gourma in Burkina Faso.

A senior police officer based in Fada N'gourma, the provincial capital said unidentified gunmen ambushed a squad composed of gendarmes and defense volunteers in the Tanwalbougou locality around 5 p.m. local time on Monday.

"The initial death toll stands at three gendarmes and four volunteers", the source said.