About 600 people were killed within a few hours by members affiliated with Al-Qaeda in an August attack on the town of Barsalogho in Burkina Faso, a report claimed on Friday. The residents of Barsalogho were shot dead on August 24 as they dug protective trenches.
The attack, in which most of the victims were women and children, was one of the worst in the West African country’s history, which has been grappling with a jihadist insurgency waged by rebels affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group that spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
The members of Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al Qaeda affiliate based in Mali and active in Burkina Faso, shot down villagers as they swept into the outskirts of Barsalogho on bikes.
While the United Nations estimated a death count of around 200, JNIM said it had killed nearly 300 “fighters”. However, CNN, citing a French government security assessment, reported that up to 600 people were shot dead in the attack.
A man, who said he was one of dozens of men told to dig the trenches by the army, told CNN that he was 4 kilometers from the town at about 11 am, in a trench, when he heard the first gunshots.
“I started to crawl into the trench to escape. But it seemed that the attackers were following the trenches. So, I crawled out and came across the first bloodied victim. There was actually blood everywhere on my way. There was screaming everywhere. I got down on my stomach under a bush, until later in the afternoon, hiding,” he said.
Another survivor, who lost two members of her family in the attack, said JNIM killed people “all day long”.
“For three days we were collecting bodies – scattered everywhere. Fear got into our hearts. At the burial time, there are so many bodies lying on the ground that burying was hard,” she said.
The locals were reportedly ordered by the military to dig a vast trench network around the town to protect it from jihadists circulating nearby.
JNIM has warned civilians against endorsing the army in its fight against the insurgency.
Since the start of the conflict in 2015, more than 20,000 people have been killed and over two million displaced in Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries situated in the Sahel, a region wracked by instability.
According to the ACLED analysis group, which tracks global conflict, members affiliated with Al-Qaeda – which was founded by Osama bin Laden and carried out the 9/11 attacks in the US – and the Islamic State group have killed about 3,800 this year.
(With agency inputs)