New junta's soldiers stand guard in an armoured vehicle in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
A recent security assessment by the French government has revealed that up to 600 people had died in the August shooting in the West African country of Burkina Faso by Al Qaeda-linked militants. The new numbers are shocking as they are double the toll claimed by the militants themselves and will make the attack one of the bloodiest the African continent has seen in decades.
According to a report by CNN, the assessment was given to it by a French security official.
Initially, the United Nations had estimated that the death toll was at least 200. On the other hand, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the Al-Qaeda based militant group based in Mali and active in Burkina Faso, which carried out the attack, said that it killed at least 300 people.
The suspected jihadists had opened fire on the people as they were digging trenches around a town to protect it from attacks, victims' relatives and a source who spoke to wounded survivors said.
JNIM, however, said that it targeted militia members affiliated with the army, rather than civilians, news agency Reuters had reported.
Th French assessment report said that French and American forces have failed to contain the jihadist movement in the Sahel nation. "A series of coups across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger led to the departure of French and American forces. The Russian mercenaries summoned by the juntas to bolster their grip have instead left a vacuum in which jihadists have thrived," the publication has quoted the report.
The report further added, "Large-scale deadly attacks against civilian populations or defense and security forces have been occurring for several weeks at a rate that seems unsustainable for the government, which no longer really has a military strategy to offer and whose propaganda discourse seems out of breath and ideas."
French influence in Africa has been eroded by coups in Mali in 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023 which saw Paris-friendly governments replaced by juntas who become closer to Russia.
(With Reuters inputs)