Burkina Faso Prosecutor: Around 170 'Executed' in Village Attacks
The Facts
Around 170 people, including women and children, were "executed" in a new wave of attacks on three villages in northern Burkina Faso, the prosecutor for the northern city of Ouahigouya, Aly Benjamin Coulibaly, said on Sunday.
Coulibaly added that his office had ordered an investigation and asked witnesses for support after he received reports of the attacks by unidentified gunmen on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin, and Soroe in Yatenga province on Feb. 25.
The Spin
Narrative A
Anger at the state's inability to curb the Islamist onslaught played a major role in Pres. Ibrahim Traore's rise to power following two military coups in 2022. However, since he expelled the French military from Burkina Faso and turned to Russia for security backing, the state of security has deteriorated further. While the junta has failed to recapture territory from the jihadists, internal repression is on the rise, and corruption and illicit enrichment are flourishing. Many more people are likely to lose their lives as a result of the regime's increasing despotism.
Narrative B
The latest attacks are a grim reminder that Burkina Faso has emerged as the epicenter of Islamist violence in the Sahel region. That the situation has hardly improved since the French withdrawal is not proof of the government's failure but rather underscores the complexity of the security challenges facing the entire region. The population and the government are committed to confronting the Islamists — but without regional and international backing, the prospects of peace and stability returning to Burkina Faso and the Sahel are slim.
