Around 600 people were shot dead within hours by a militant group having links to al Qaeda in an attack on a town in Burkina Faso in August, CNN reported citing a French government security assessment. The death toll figure has been revised to up to 600.
As per CNN, the revised death toll makes the assault one of the deadliest single attacks in Africa in recent decades. During the assault, the civilians were shot dead while digging trenches to defend the remote town of Barsalogho. The residents were shot dead on August 24.
Several videos of the attack by the militants from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) were posted online by pro-JNIM accounts. Among the dead are many women and children.
The videos show people being shot at while they tried to play dead. As per CNN, the militants swept through the outskirts of Barsalogho on motorcycles and shot down villagers.The death toll, as estimated by the United Nations, was at least 200. Meanwhile, JNIM said it had killed about 300 people. However, it claimed that it had targeted militia members affiliated with the army, rather than civilians.
“Those who were eliminated in this attack are nothing but militias affiliated with the Burkinabe army…not as they lied and said that they were civilians,” JNIM said in a communique translated by Site Intelligence Group, Reuters reported.
A French official highlighted a “very significant deterioration in the security situation” in Burkina Faso, CNN reported. “Armed-terrorist groups are enjoying increasing freedom of action because security forces are unable to cope,” the official added.
The massacre at Barsalogho occurred after the military ordered locals to dig an extensive trench network around the town to protect it from nearby jihadists. JNIM gunmen then attacked while the defenses were still under construction, falsely accusing the civilians of being combatants due to their involvement, according to eyewitness reports.
A survivor, fearing for his safety, told CNN he was among dozens ordered by the army to dig trenches.. When gunfire erupted, he was in a trench and crawled to escape. However, he soon saw bloodied victims. “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 said that two members of her family were killed in the attack. “They 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 added.