36 CIVILIANS KILLED IN A TERRORIST ATTACK

IN BURKINA FASO

Thirty-six civilians were killed Monday in an attack on villages in northern Burkina Faso, authorities said on Tuesday (January 21st).

"The Burkinabe government has learned with dismay and indignation at the death of 36 Burkinabés in the province of Sanmatenga, following a terrorist attack," said Minister of Communication Remis Fulgance Dandjinou in a press release.

"On Monday January 20, 2020, an armed terrorist group broke into the Nagraogo market, killed 32 of our fellow citizens there, burned the market and, in its fall, killed four others in the village of Alamou. This attack also left three people injured. "

The president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, decreed a “national mourning of forty-eight hours going from Wednesday January 22 to Thursday January 23”

Faced with these "repeated attacks" against the populations, the government launched a call for "frank collaboration with the defense and security forces and the strengthening of solidarity between Burkinabés".

Also, the Parliament unanimously adopted a law on Tuesday January 21, 2020 allowing the recruitment of local volunteers to support the fight against jihadists. The idea was launched by President Kaboré in November 2019, after the attack on a convoy of a Canadian mining company, which had killed 38 people, in the East.

Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, is facing jihadist attacks, which have left more than 750 dead and 560,000 displaced since 2015.

According to the United Nations, jihadist attacks in Mali, Niger and Burkina killed 4,000 people in 2019.

Security experts presented a draft new security policy for the country to President Kaboré on Monday.

The French Minister of Armies, Florence Parly, announced on Monday in Bamako, Mali, new military operations to come in the so-called three-border area (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger), where France and its allies are concentrating their efforts against jihadist expansion.