More than 7,000 people have fled a village in Burkina Faso that was attacked over the weekend, adding to tens of thousands already displaced by a jihadist insurgency in the country.
Thousands flee Burkina Faso massacre
VILLAGE EMPTIED: A government official said that attackers had burned almost everything in Solhan and displaced people had fled with few or no belongings
AFP, OUAGADOUGOU
Burkina Faso on Tuesday said that more than 7,000 people had fled the country’s volatile north following the bloodiest massacre in a six-year-old jihadist insurgency.
“Steps have already been taken to give [displaced people] a minimum level of comfort, lodgings and food,” Burkinabe Prime Minister Christophe Dabire said, promising on a visit to the area that the attack “will not go unpunished.”
Dabire’s advisers told reporters that 7,600 people had fled to Sebba, the capital of Yagha Province, about 15km from the scene of the attack in Solhan village.
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Burkina Faso makes tentative steps towards dialogue with jihadists AFP 3/10/2021 AFP
While he was on the campaign trail last November, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore had a mantra We shall not negotiate when talking about Burkina Faso s jihadist insurgency.
The policy set Kabore apart from former president Blaise Compaore, whose view was that dialogue with jihadists from neighbouring Mali had discouraged attacks on Burkina Faso itself.
Kabore s declared refusal has been strongly backed by France, whose military campaign against jihadism in the Sahel is now in its ninth year.
But sources say contacts have taken place with jihadists at the local level in part of northern Burkina Faso.