Hundreds were killed in north-central Burkina Faso on Saturday (Aug 25) after suspected jihadists opened fire on them as they were digging trenches around a town to protect it from attacks, victims’ relatives and a source who spoke to wounded survivors said.
The attack outside the town of Barsalogho is one of the deadliest since groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State moved into Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali almost a decade ago, plunging the Sahel nation into a security crisis that contributed to two coups in 2022.
The ruling junta has condemned the violence, but did not say how many people were killed.
Hundreds of wounded people were evacuated to healthcare facilities in the city of Kaya, around 40 kilometres south, where a source who did not wish to be named for fear of retribution said the death toll from the attack was likely higher than 500.
Hundreds were at work outside when suspected jihadists attacked, the source said, citing the accounts of several injured victims in Kaya.
“All they could do was lie down on top of each other. It was carnage,” the source said, adding that gunmen also shot at women who were collecting firewood nearby.
Relatives of Barsalogho residents in the capital Ouagadougou issued a joint statement on Sunday relaying a similar chain of events.
They said at least 400 people had been killed, either on the spot or succumbing to injuries later, and that hundreds more were hospitalised between Kaya and the capital Ouagadougou.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the estimated death toll.
The statement accused the army of forcing residents to dig the trenches, beating those who feared reprisals for visibly siding with authorities in an area rife with violent insurgent activity.
The United States embassy in Ouagadougou on Tuesday said the U.S. “strongly condemns the terrorist attack”.
Al Qaeda affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin said it had seized control of suspected army headquarters in Barsalogho on Aug. 24
A woman who survived the massacre described the horror of searching through bodies to find her brothers, in an interview following the attack claimed by an Al Qaeda-linked group earlier last week.
“We went out with carts to collect the bodies of my older brothers,” said the woman, 38, who escaped with her toddler. “We spent a long time going through bodies piled up under trees.”
The woman gave the interview to an aid worker in Kaya, a nearby town where many survivors have since fled. The aid worker provided the woman’s testimony in an audio recording to Reuters. The woman agreed for her story to be released to the media on condition that her name and voice be withheld for her safety.
The attack outside the town of Barsalogho was one of the deadliest in nearly a decade of Islamist violence in the West African country. A group of victims’ relatives said at least 400 people were killed when jihadists opened fire on civilians digging defensive trenches on the orders of the military.
The massacre took place on Saturday (Aug 24) morning, the woman said in the interview. The army had forced every man in the town out to dig trenches to protect it from attackers, while women and younger children were sent to cut long grass and trees to improve visibility for the soldiers stationed there.
The militants, or bushmen as she described them, arrived at about 10 a.m. and began killing, firing on soldiers and civilians alike. They didn’t stop until later in the day when drones arrived overheard. She said it took three days for the survivors, mostly women and children, to collect the bodies.
Several videos apparently filmed by the militants and released on social media showed more than 100 bodies piled in a trench, most of them in civilian clothing. Reuters confirmed the location of the videos from the position of the trench and other features in the landscape that matched satellite imagery.
The woman interviewed said civilians, soldiers and volunteer army auxiliaries known as VDPs were among those attacked. One family she knew lost 30 members. Another family of 13 members was completely wiped out, she said.
Burkina Faso’s ruling junta has not said how many people were killed, but said civilians were among the victims.
The eyewitness said survivors took the bodies to the mayor’s office and helped each other transport the dead to the site where men were digging graves. Local custom prohibits women from burying the dead, but she still asked to help because there were so many graves to dig.
When the men refused, she gave her cart to neighbours still collecting bodies and waited for her turn to bury her three brothers.
“I stayed at the town hall watching people carrying bodies everywhere. It was horrible,” she said.
Her oldest brother was buried first, after she insisted he be given his own grave. Neighbours dug graves for the other two the following day.
“I am no longer sure that I am normal. You know why? Because I saw horrible things, dead bodies and blood everywhere. I have not been sleeping well since I was displaced here,” the woman said.
A civil society source in Kaya said that the military had surrounded the town where many survivors had fled and were preventing them from leaving or talking about what happened.
A civilian group called Collectif Justice pour Barsalogho has criticised the government for its silence on the attack, which had been condemned worldwide including by the United Nations and European Union.
It said a government delegation that reached the area was more preoccupied with the army than the civilian survivors. It blamed the army for sending citizens to their deaths by forcing them to dig trenches that became mass graves.
“We regret that ministers can come all the way to Barsalogho and turn back without seeing the tears or hearing the cries of grief of this community,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday, “every single family is in mourning. The youth has been decimated.”
Frustrations over worsening violence led to two coups in Burkina Faso in 2022, but the new authorities have failed to stem the bloodshed.
Over 6,500 civilians have been killed since the start of 2020, the non-governmental organisation Armed Conflict Location and Event Data said in July.
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