An armed group linked to al-Qaeda, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has claimed responsibility for what it says was an attack that killed up to 200 people and injured at least 140 in central Burkina Faso.
The attack took place on Saturday in the region of Barsalogho, about 40km (25 miles) north of the strategic town of Kaya, which analysts said is home to the last standing force protecting the capital, Ouagadougou.
Fighters opened fire on teams of people digging trenches designed to protect security outposts. Several soldiers were missing after the attack, and the attackers took weapons and a military ambulance.
Reporting from Dakar, Senegal, Al Jazeera’s Nicholas Haque said JNIM posted gruesome videos of the aftermath of the attack.
“We see men, women and children laying inside the trenches they were digging themselves. Effectively, they have turned into mass graves,” he said, adding that the hospital in the area has called doctors, nurses and other medical staff from Kaya to treat those who have been injured in the attack.
Haque noted that the Burkina Faso army knew on Friday that an attack was going to happen and called on the population to dig trenches.
“That shows the desperation of Burkina Faso’s forces, who have lost control of half of their territory to armed groups linked to al-Qaeda,” he added.
Burkina Faso has severed its ties with Western countries such as France that had been involved in helping the country’s security forces tackle armed groups.
Haque said that recently the government had been calling on the help of Russian mercenary fighters to support it strategically but also to help stem the attacks.
“Despite that help, it seems that those attacks are getting closer and closer to the capital,” Haque said. He noted that the country’s military leaders, who came to power in a coup in 2022, have also had to face down several attempted coups due to discontent with the way it has struggled with the fight against armed groups.
Armed groups have killed thousands of people and displaced more than two million in Burkina Faso over more than a decade.
The country has topped the recent Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises.
The violence killed more than 8,400 people last year, double the number of deaths from the previous year, according to the NRC.