Burkina Faso’s government on Tuesday said at least 11 soldiers have been killed and 50 civilians were missing after unidentified armed militants attacked a 150-vehicle military-escorted convoy taking supplies to the city of Djibo, reported The Gulf News.
In a statement, the government said the attack took place on Monday near Gaskinde in Soum province, an area where insurgents linked to al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) group have been escalating attacks and seizing territory since 2015.
“A convoy carrying supplies to Djibo town was the target of a cowardly and barbaric attack,” government spokesman Lionel Bilgo said adding that, “the provisional toll is that 11 bodies of soldiers have been found… About 50 civilians are missing and searches are ongoing.”
As per reports, some 28 people, including 20 soldiers, were wounded, while dozens of trucks were destroyed.
Violence has raged in Burkina Faso since Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power in a coup in January, toppling the West African country’s elected leader Roch Marc Christian Kabore after he failed to stem the jihadist insurgency in the country that first emerged in Mali in 2012. Earlier this month, Damiba even sacked his Defence Minister General Barthelemy Simpore and assumed the role himself.
Burkina Faso’s security condition has worsened since 2015 as militant attacks have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1.9 million others in the West African nation. More than 40 percent of Burkina Faso, a former French colony, is currently outside the control of the government.
On Sunday, at least four people were wounded when another army-escorted resupply convoy in the Sahel hit a roadside bomb, but the vehicles were able to reach their destination. On September 6, at least 35 civilians were killed when a vehicle in their convoy carrying supplies between Djibo and Bourzanga also hit an improvised explosive device.
