Suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso have killed at least 16 civilians, including four army auxiliaries, sources said Thursday, adding that around 12 "terrorists" later died in an army counter-offensive.
About 12 people died and two were injured in Koulponsgo, in central-eastern Burkina Faso on Tuesday, a resident revealed. A security source confirmed both the attack and toll.
On the same day, an "attack by terrorist groups left four dead in Sirasso" in the west, the security source said, adding they were all civilian volunteers of the Burkinabe armed self-defense group Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland for the army (VDP).
Around a dozen "terrorists" were also killed in counter-operations by the troubled West African nation's army after Tuesday's strikes, the security source noted.
Burkina Faso is fighting a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015. The latest violence follows an attack last week on a camp for internally displaced people in the north of the country, which left eight people dead.
Anger within the Burkinabe armed forces led to a coup in January 2022, toppling elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
On September 30, 2022, Kabore's nemesis, Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, was himself overthrown in another coup, as a result of which Captain Ibrahim Traore became Burkina Faso's transitional president.
On Wednesday, the government claimed nearly 192,000 internally displaced people had returned to their homes after various regions were retaken by government forces. Jihadist attacks continue unabated despite government claims to have wrested back territory.
In January, following the tensions with the authorities, Burkina's former colonial ruler France withdrew troops from the country's territory. The West African state has since developed closer contacts with Russia.
In late August, Traore met in Ouagadougou with a Russian delegation led by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunous-Bek Evkourov to discuss the state and prospects of the military-technical cooperation.