Dozens killed in attack in Burkina Faso near Mali border

The latest violence comes as the country’s military leaders intensify efforts to quell an uprising that has killed thousands.

Some 60 civilians have been killed in a village in northern Burkina Faso, according to the local prosecutor who announced an investigation into the attack.

Citing information from the Ouahigouya city police, prosecutor Lamine Kabore said the attack took place on Friday in the village of Karma, near the Mali border.

The statement said the perpetrators were wearing Burkina Faso armed forces uniforms, but gave no further details about the attack.

“The wounded have been evacuated and are currently being treated inside our health facilities,” Kabore told the AFP news agency, adding that the perpetrators “took various goods.”

Armed groups are believed to control around 40 percent of Burkina Faso in regional unrest that began in Mali in 2012 when hardline groups hijacked a Tuareg separatist uprising. Burkina Faso’s military rulers announced a “general mobilization” this month as part of a plan to regain territory lost by armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

In Karma, survivors told AFP that more than 100 people on motorbikes and pickup trucks raided the town and dozens of men and boys were killed by men dressed in military uniforms.

They put the death toll at “around 80”.

Last week, 34 defense volunteers and six soldiers died in an attack by an “unidentified” group near the village of Aorema, some 40 km from Karma.

Burkina Faso’s military rulers had declared their “general mobilization” to give the state “all necessary means” to combat the armed uprising just days earlier.

The decree establishes that any person over 18 years of age and in good physical shape who is not in the armed forces will be “called to enlist according to the needs expressed by the competent authorities.”

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to aid groups, and some two million have been forced to flee their homes.

Anger within the military over the rising number of casualties led to two coups in 2022, the most recent of which was in September, when Captain Ibrahim Traoré he emerged as president.

Traore says he is committed to a plan by the previous military administration to hold elections for a civilian government by 2024.