Ouagadougou –
About 60 civilians were killed in northern Burkina Faso on Friday by people wearing the uniforms of the Burkina Faso army, local prosecutor Lamine Cabole said on Sunday, citing information from police in the town of Huahigoya. .
He said an investigation was launched after the attack on Karma village in Yatenga province, a border region near Mali. The area has been the site of repeated attacks over the years by Islamist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The statement did not provide any details about the attack.
Attacks on civilians by armed groups have surged since 2022, while state security forces and volunteer defense forces have conducted a number of abusive counterterrorism operations, Human Rights Watch said. said in March.
According to the government, unidentified assailants killed 40 people and wounded 33 in an April 15 attack on military and militia forces near Ouahigoya, in the same area of northern Burkina Faso.
The turmoil in the region began in Mali, where Islamists hijacked a Tuareg separatist uprising in 2012. Violence then spread to Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands and displacing more than 2.5 million from their homes.
(Reporting by Thiam Ndiaga, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
