Key Highlights:
Hundreds of civilians were massacred in a devastating attack Burkina Faso and the rest of the world were left stunned by. The early Saturday morning assault by militants linked to Al-Qaeda, in the central-northern town of Barsalogho, claimed more than 600 people; this happens to be one of the most deadly terrorist attacks on the African continent in recent history.
This mass killing, attributed to the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), received plenty of criticism. According to intelligence reports, some of the local civilians—the majority of whom were youth—were assisting the military in digging trenches that would help the army in anticipation of defending the region when the jihadists committed the cold-blooded shooting rampage.
Barsalogho: A Strategic Target
Barsalogho has for long been considered a strategic location due to its proximity to the capital city, Ouagadougou. The locality was 40 kilometers from the Kaya municipality and had been a defense line against attacks by rebels heading to the capital of Burkina Faso. Before the attack, the army mobilized citizens from that town to dig trenches around their town as a preventive mechanism.
However, that plan was brutally interrupted as militant Islamist fighters swooped into the area. From 9:00 AM till 4:00 PM on August 24, the fighters launched their assault, attacking soldiers but also unarmed townspeople who were assisting the soldiers .
The Horror Unfolds
Within hours, the attackers had murdered as many as 600 people. The attacked victims included soldiers, civilian volunteers, and local residents. Survivors described horrific scenes in which the attackers unleashed indiscriminate violence on people in the trenches. Reportedly, the militants utilised the very trenches which civilians had dug for turning them into mass graves.
As an climax to the anarchy, the guerrilla attackers docked weaponry and military machines from the Burkinabe forces. In their attacks, some militants were killed by the army in retaltiatory strikes but this could not quell the massive carnage they perpetrated.
French Intelligence Doubling of the Death Toll Estimate
Whereas initial reports had estimated between 400 and 450 fatalities, a recent French government security assessment reports that nearly 600 people lost their lives in this terrible attack. This makes the Barsalogho massacre one of the deadliest terrorist assaults in Africa for many decades.
A Wider Crisis in the Sahel
The country has been locked in increasing violence linked to Islamist insurgencies for years. Groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) have been responsible for rampaging across the Sahel region, which explains the significantly huge area of unknown instability. Since 2015, tens of thousands of people have been killed in jihadist attacks, and millions have been displaced due to the remnants of ongoing conflicts.
Of course, the cruel Barsalogho massacre is part of a larger trend of increasing violence in the region. The Burkinabe military junta has failed to halt the violence despite having some international cooperation. It is proof that the government had come to a kind of crisis situation by recruiting civilian volunteers such as those who dug the trenches into action.
International Condemnation and Local Responses
It has left shock waves within and outside the country. The Burkinabe government promised to respond “with determination” to the massacre. Due to the persistent threat by jihadist groups, the country had increased its counter-terrorism measures, with some small success about curbing the attacks.
In any event, the massacre throws several questions about military dependence on civilian support because the critics argue that the government is putting untrained civilians in harm’s way due to the mere involvement of the people in its actions. The terror groups, as earlier observed, target civilians as part of a strategy to undermine governmental efforts and destabilize the regions.
It is a dark day for Burkina Faso
The Barsalogho massacre is a grim reminder of the insurgency going on in Burkina Faso, claiming innocent lives day in and day out. The international community, increasingly being compelled by this heinous attack to do much more in regard to providing aid in combating the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel, says that Burkina Faso’s fight is far from over.
What measures can be taken to prevent this from ever happening again is something on which the world now focuses as further investigations into the attack unfold.
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