At least 19 killed in two suspected terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso

At least 19 people have been killed, including nine army auxiliaries, in two suspected terrorist attacks over the weekend in the towns of Dembo and Yargatenga in Burkina Faso.

In the first attack, carried out last Thursday, about a hundred gunmen on trucks and motorcycles opened fire in the village of Dembo, in the northwest of the country, killing seven people, all of whom were Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP), Al24 News has reported.

On Sunday, another group of suspected terrorists attacked the town of Yargatenga — located in the far east of the country, near the border of Togo and Ghana — killing 12 people, including two VDPs.

Burkina Faso, led by a military junta since the January coup against the then president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, has generally experienced a significant increase in insecurity since 2015, leading to a wave of internally displaced persons and refugees to other countries in the region.

The attacks, the work of both Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates in the region, have also contributed to an increase in inter-communal violence and have led to a flourishing of self-defense groups, to which the Burkinabe government has added ‘volunteers’ to assist in the fight against terrorism.

Source: msn