Up to 200 people killed in attack in central Burkina Faso | Conflict news

The al-Qaeda-linked armed group Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin claimed responsibility for the attack.

An al-Qaeda-linked armed group, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has claimed responsibility for 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 Barsalogho region, about 40 kilometers north of the strategically important city of Kaya. According to analysts, the last remaining military force protecting the capital Ouagadougou is stationed there.

Militants opened fire on teams digging trenches to protect security posts. Several soldiers were missing after the attack, and the attackers captured weapons and a military ambulance.

Al Jazeera's Nicholas Haque, reporting from Dakar, Senegal, said JNIM had released gruesome videos of the aftermath of the attack.

“We see men, women and children lying in the trenches they dug themselves. They have practically become mass graves,” he said, adding that the hospital in the area had called doctors, nurses and other medical personnel from Kaya to treat those injured in the attack.

Haque pointed out that the Burkina Faso army already knew about an impending attack on Friday and had called on the population to dig trenches.

“This shows the desperation of Burkina Faso's armed forces, which have lost control of half their territory to armed groups linked to al-Qaeda,” he added.

Burkina Faso has severed ties with Western countries such as France, which had helped the country's security forces fight armed groups.

Haque said the government has recently asked for help from Russian mercenaries to provide strategic support but also to help contain the attacks.

“Despite this help, the attacks seem to be getting closer and closer to the capital,” Haque said, noting that the country's military leadership, which came to power in a coup in 2022, has also had to fend off several coup attempts due to dissatisfaction with the way it is conducting the fight against armed groups.

Armed groups have killed thousands of people and displaced more than two million in Burkina Faso over the course of more than a decade.

The country currently tops the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) list of the world’s most neglected refugee crises.

According to the NRC, more than 8,400 people were killed in the violence last year, twice as many as the year before.