Burkina Faso was in mourning Wednesday after jihadists killed 35 civilians, almost all of them women, in double attacks in the north in one of the deadliest assaults in nearly five years of violence in the West African country.
Seven
soldiers and 80 jihadists also died in Tuesday's simultaneous attacks on the
town of Arbinda and its military base in Soum province, which lasted
"several hours" and was of a "rare intensity", the army
said.
Burkina
Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has seen regular jihadist attacks which have
left hundreds dead since the start of 2015 when militant violence began to
spread across the Sahel region.
"A
large group of terrorists simultaneously attacked the military base and the
civilian population in Arbinda," the army chief of staff said in a
statement.
"This
barbaric attack resulted in the deaths of 35 civilian victims, most of them
women," President Roch Marc Christian Kabore added on Twitter, praising
the "bravery and commitment" of the defence and security forces.
Government
spokesman Remis Dandjinou later said 31 of the civilian victims were women,
adding around 20 soldiers and six civilians were wounded.
The
president has declared 48 hours of national mourning.
There
was worldwide condemnation of the attack, as well as expressions of support for
Burkina Faso.
- Pope's
prayers -
In his
traditional Christmas message at the Vatican in Rome, Pope Francis denounced
attacks on Christians in Africa and prayed for victims of conflict, natural
disasters and disease on the world's poorest continent.
The
pontiff urged "comfort to those who are persecuted for their religious
faith, especially missionaries and members of the faithful who have been
kidnapped, and to the victims of attacks by extremist groups, particularly in
Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria."
In
Brussels, the head of the European Council Charles Michel tweeted: "Inates
in Niger yesterday, Arbinda in Burkina Faso today... Martyr towns, victims of a
rampant terrorism that threatens us all. The European Union stands by Africa in
its battle against terrorism."
Niger's
president Mahamadou Issoufou also expressed his "solidarity" and,
speaking "in the name of the Nigerien people" offered his
"condolences for all civilian and military victims."
The
morning raid was carried out by dozens of jihadists on motorbikes and lasted
several hours before armed forces backed by the air force drove the militants back,
the army said.
No group
immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but jihadist violence in
Burkina Faso has been blamed on militants linked to both Al Qaeda and Islamic
State groups.
-
560,000 internally displaced -
Leaders
of the G5 Sahel nations held summit talks in Niger earlier this month, calling
for closer cooperation and international support in the battle against the
Islamist threat.
Militant
violence has spread across the vast Sahel region, especially in Burkina Faso
and Niger, having started when armed Islamists revolted in northern Mali in
2012.
The
Sahel region of Africa lies to the south of the Sahara Desert and stretches
across the breadth of the African continent.
There
are 4,500 French troops deployed in the region as well as a 13,000-strong UN
peacekeeping force in Mali to fight insurgents.
The G5
group is made up of Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, whose
impoverished armies have the support of French forces as well as the UN in
Mali.
In
Burkina Faso, more than 700 people have been killed and around 560,000
internally displaced, according to the United Nations.
Attacks
have targeted mostly the north and east of the country, though the capital
Ouagadougou has been hit three times.
Prior to
Tuesday's attack, Burkina security forces said they had killed around a hundred
jihadists in several operations since November.
An
ambush on a convoy transporting employees of a Canadian mining company in
November killed 37 people.
Attacks
have intensified this year as the under-equipped, poorly trained Burkina Faso
army struggles to contain the Islamist militancy.
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