Muslims attack army, kill nearly 70 soldiers in Burkina Faso
“Junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore acknowledged the fight against jihadism was ‘strewn with pitfalls’ but said the authorities remained ‘determined’ to triumph.”
Yeah, you clearly have the upper hand there, Traore.
Yet no one is asking why the jihadis are able to defeat various national armies in Central and West Africa. Who funds them? Why do they remain popular among a segment of the population?
“Nearly 70 troops killed in two jihadist attacks in troubled Burkina,” Agence France Presse, February 21, 2023:
Ouagadougou (AFP) – Suspected jihadists killed at least 15 soldiers in troubled northern Burkina Faso, just three days after an ambush that claimed the lives of 51 troops, security sources said Tuesday.
A unit in Tin-Akoff in Oudalan province near the border with Mali “came under violent attack” on Monday evening, a source said, giving a toll of “about 15 dead” with others still missing.
The army mounted a counter-attack with air support, “neutralising… dozens of terrorists,” the source added.
A second source in the security forces confirmed the assault and put the toll at 19 soldiers dead and “dozens of missing.”
The bloodshed came as the Sahel nation reeled from a deadly ambush last Friday near Deou, also in Oudalan province.
Fifty-one soldiers died and 160 jihadists were killed in that action and the aftermath, according to army figures.
Jihadist insurgents in Mali began launching cross-border incursions on the landlocked Sahel state more than seven years ago.
Since then, than 10,000 civilians, police and troops have died, according to NGO estimates, and more than two million people have fled their homes.
Around 40 percent of the nation’s territory lies outside the government’s control….
Junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore acknowledged the fight against jihadism was “strewn with pitfalls” but said the authorities remained “determined” to triumph….
