Suspected Islamist militants have launched fresh attacks on military positions in northern and eastern Burkina Faso, killing at least 10 people in a wave of violence over the past four days, security sources told AFP on Sunday.
The West African nation, led by a military junta since a 2022 coup, has battled insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group for more than a decade.
On Sunday, fighters carried out what sources described as a major assault on a military detachment in the northern town of Nare. A day earlier, an army unit in the northern city of Titao was reportedly attacked by a large group of heavily armed militants, said to number in the hundreds.
Although no official casualty figures were provided for the Nare and Titao incidents, one security source said part of the military base in Titao was destroyed during the attack.
Social media reports have speculated that dozens of soldiers may have been killed in the recent violence, but AFP said it could not independently verify those claims. The ruling junta, which took power promising to curb the insurgency, has largely stopped communicating publicly about jihadist attacks.
Ghana’s Interior Minister, whose country shares a southern border with Burkina Faso, disclosed that authorities had received troubling information about a truck carrying Ghanaian tomato traders that was caught up in the attack in Titao.
In eastern Burkina Faso, another army base in Tandjari was also attacked on Saturday, with several officers reportedly killed. “This series of attacks is not a coincidence,” one security source said, suggesting possible coordination among jihadist groups.
Earlier in the week, on Thursday, militants targeted a military detachment in Bilanga, also in the east. According to a security source, much of the base was ransacked and about 10 soldiers and civilian volunteers fighting alongside the army were killed. A local source confirmed the assault, noting that the attackers remained in the area until the following day and caused damage within the town.
Despite repeated pledges by the junta to restore security, Burkina Faso continues to face escalating violence. Data from conflict monitor ACLED shows that tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed since 2015, with more than half of those deaths occurring in the last three years.
