Attacks on civilians in Burkina Faso claim many lives
Around 40 people, many of them civilian volunteers with the army, have been killed in suspected jihadist attacks in northern and eastern Burkina Faso, local sources and security officials said on Monday.
In the northern region of Sahel, around 25 people were killed in two assaults on Saturday, including 13 members of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP), a leader of the force told AFP.
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In Kompienga, near Burkina’s southeastern border with Togo and Benin, about 15 civilians were killed when their convoy was attacked while under VDP escort, the source said.
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A local inhabitant said three VDP volunteers also died in the attack and called for help for the wounded, which he said numbered nearly a dozen.
In another raid overnight Saturday, assailants carried out a coordinated attack on police and gendarmes’ posts in Faramana, near the frontier with Mali, causing two wounded, another security source said.
