In one of the deadliest attacks in the history of Burkina Faso, approximately 600 people were brutally killed by members affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the town of Barsalogho on August 24. The assault, which left most of the victims—mainly women and children—dead, occurred as villagers were digging protective trenches on the outskirts of the town.
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest.
Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an Al-Qaeda affiliate, carried out the massacre, sweeping into Barsalogho on motorcycles and opening fire. Survivors described harrowing scenes of bloodshed and chaos.
One man, ordered by the army to help dig the trenches, recalled crawling out of a trench to escape, witnessing bodies and blood everywhere. Another survivor, who lost two family members, said that the attackers “killed people all day long.”
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While initial estimates from the United Nations put the death toll at around 200, JNIM claimed responsibility for killing nearly 300 people. A French government security assessment, however, suggested that the actual number of those killed could be closer to 600, as reported by CNN.
The attack underscores the devastating impact of the ongoing jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso, which began spilling over from neighboring Mali in 2015. Since then, groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have waged relentless violence across the Sahel region. The conflict has claimed over 20,000 lives and displaced more than two million people.
JNIM, responsible for many of these attacks, has warned civilians against supporting the military in its efforts to fight the insurgents. Despite efforts by the military to fortify the town of Barsalogho with trenches, the attackers found and exploited these defenses to launch their massacre.
The tragedy has only added to the mounting death toll from jihadist violence in Burkina Faso, which has seen 3,800 fatalities linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates this year alone, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).
