At least 33 soldiers died yesterday and 12 were injured this Thursday morning in a jihadist attack against a military platoon in Ougarou, in eastern Burkina Faso, as reported by the Burkinabe Army.
“The Ougarou military detachment had to deal with a large-scale complex attack early Thursday morning,” the army statement said. “Unfortunately, thirty-three of our soldiers fell with weapons in hand, while another twelve were injured,” the document states, which points out that the evacuated wounded are being treated by the health services.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has regularly suffered attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which control 40% of the territory of the African country -especially rural areas-, and subject the population to robberies, blackmail, extortion and massacres.
The discontent of the population with the jihadist attacks, which in addition to sowing fear have caused more than 8,000 deaths and more than 2 million refugees according to the latest government figures, are the main cause of the coups that the country suffered in 2022. The first, on January 24, led by Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, overthrew the president-elect Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, accused of “incapacity” against the jihadists. The second was on September 30, led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré who is still in power.
However, the Traoré government is having difficulty keeping the jihadists at bay and reclaiming territory, so violence has intensified in recent months. Last week he signed a year-long “general mobilization” decree, allowing “young people aged 18 and over” to be called up to fight the jihadists.
The massacre was attributed to Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP), civilians who collaborate with the Army in the anti-jihadist fight, by the UN Human Rights Office, which demanded accountability and investigation of this ” massacre of civilians”.
In this context of the inability to stop the advance of the jihadists and the withdrawal of French troops – who also did not achieve any victory against the terrorist groups – Russian influence in the African country is increasingly important. As happened with neighboring Mali, also a former colony of Paris, anti-French sentiment has left room for Russian power to flourish in the region, materialized by shipments of arms and the military presence of groups of Russian mercenaries. like Wagner.
