Burkina Faso’s army on Friday said it has given two weeks’ time to the civilians to evacuate vast areas in its northern and south eastern regions ahead of military operations against Islamist insurgents, reported Aljazeera.
Earlier this week, Burkina Faso’s army ordered civilians to leave two large military interest zones to protect them. The army, however, did not specify how long they would have to evacuate or where they should go.
One of the military zones is a rural area of around 2,000 square kilometres (772 square miles) bordering Mali in the northern province of Soum. The other covers about 11,000 square kilometres on the southern border with Benin and is mostly national park land.
“A delay of 14 days will be accorded to resident populations to join safer zones,” army spokesperson Yves Didier Bamouni said at a press briefing.
He said it is very important to be able to distinguish friends from enemies, without providing further detail.
According to a report from Reuters, citing military sources, the government would provide support to the displaced.
Burkina Faso has been struggling to control Islamist militant groups active in the region, including some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, since 2015. The fighting has displaced over 1.85 million in the West African country alone and killed thousands across the Sahel.
The evacuation order was given after at least 100 civilians were killed and thousands got displaced a in the north, in the country’s second-deadliest attack ever.
On Friday, Burkina Faso’s army also announced a three-month ban on certain brands of motorbikes and motorised tricycles across parts of eight regions.
The decision to evacuate the disturbed zones has been taken to help the army distinguish civilians from militants who often use two-wheelers to travel and carry out attacks. No details or timeline for the upcoming military interventions has been given.
