According to a French security assessment, 600 people died in the Burkina Faso massacre, double previous estimates

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic images and descriptions of violence.

CNN
—

Al-Qaeda-linked militants shot dead as many as 600 people in an August attack on a town in Burkina Faso, according to a French government security assessment that almost doubles the death toll in previous reports. The new character will make the attack, in which civilians were shot dead while digging trenches to defend the remote town of Barsalogho, one of the deadliest single attacks in Africa in recent decades.

Fighters from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate based in Mali and operating in Burkina Faso, methodically opened fire, riding motorcycles into the outskirts of Barsalogho and shooting down villagers as they lay helpless, according to several videos from attack on August 24 published on the social media accounts of JNIM supporters. Many of the victims were women and children, and the footage is interrupted by the sounds of automatic gunfire and the screams of victims who were shot in an apparent attempt to play dead.

If French government estimates are confirmed, the horrific death toll will mark an unusually brutal moment in the Sahel region, an increasingly lawless area of ​​West Africa south of the Sahara where security projects led by the United States and French armed forces are struggling to stem the march of jihadists. A series of coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger led to the withdrawal of French and American forces. Instead, Russian mercenaries called in by the junta to tighten their grip have left a vacuum in which jihadists have thrived, according to an assessment provided to CNN by a French security official.

The United Nations initially estimated the death toll at at least 200. JNIM reported it had killed almost 300 people, but claimed its targets were army-linked militia members, not civilians, according to translation by Site Intelligence Group cited by Reuters.

“Large-scale deadly attacks (with at least one hundred deaths) against civilians or defense and security forces have been taking place for several weeks at a rate that appears unsustainable for the government,” the report says on Burkina Faso, “which is already “there really is no military strategy to offer, and the propaganda discourse seems breathless and ideasless.”

A French official told CNN that there has been a “very significant deterioration in the security situation” in Burkina Faso, where “armed terrorist groups are enjoying increasing freedom of action because security forces are unable to cope.” The report notes an attack on a military convoy in the village of Tawori, 15 days before the attack in Barsalogho, where jihadists killed “no less than 150 soldiers”, adding that the military is struggling to maintain its strength and credibility.

On September 17, the capital of nearby Mali, Bamako, was rocked by another JNIM attack, which hit the airport and other key buildings, killing more than 70 people.

The Barsalogho massacre occurred when the military ordered residents to dig a vast network of trenches around the city to protect it from jihadists roaming nearby. Then, according to eyewitnesses, JNIM attackers attacked the defenses mid-construction, falsely claiming that civilians were combatants due to their involvement.

One of the survivors, who asked to remain anonymous during an interview with CNN because he still feared for his safety despite fleeing the city, said he was one of several dozen men who were ordered by the army to dig trenches that Saturday. Around 11 a.m. he was already 4 kilometers from the city, in the trenches, when he heard the first shots.

“I started crawling into the ditch to escape,” he said. “But the attackers seemed to be following the trenches. So I crawled out and came across my first bloody victim. There was actually blood everywhere in my path. There were screams everywhere. I lay on my stomach under a bush and hid until late afternoon.

“There are few men left in the city. The sight of bodies being brought on motorized carts from the site of the massacre was the most terrible thing I had ever seen in my life. Neither women nor children had tears to shed. We were more than shocked. How can you cry if there are no tears to shed?”

“We who survived are no longer normal. The problem goes beyond all of us. The massacre began in front of me. The first shots were fired right in front of me. I was one of the people who picked up the bodies and buried them. When I sleep, I see my dead friends,” he said, adding that initial reports of 300 victims were too low. “Anyone who denies this should come and see me.”

Another survivor told CNN that two members of her family were killed in the attack. “They were killing people all day long. For three days we collected bodies – scattered all over the area. Fear crept into our hearts. During the burial, there were so many bodies on the ground that it was difficult to bury them.”

The attack led to angry protests in which Burkina Faso’s junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore, who took power in the second of two consecutive military coups in 2022, was mocked as “Captain Zero IB” for supporting civilian trench building. The French report stated that their construction was part of the Minister of the Civil Service’s plan that each settlement “must organize itself and have its own plan to respond to an attack.”

The military junta has not taken responsibility for ordering civilians to dig trenches without any protection in the face of an increased threat from jihadists. Survivors said the regime did not want them to speak out about what happened. The junta did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The 2022 coups in Burkina Faso came amid frustration over the authorities’ inability to quell repeated jihadist violence despite intense French military aid that has claimed thousands of lives over nearly a decade. But this violence has worsened under Traore’s rule, according to experts and human rights bodies.

Although initially successful, in 2014 French military operations in the region were met with growing anti-French sentiment. France expanded its counterterrorism presence but was unable to stop the ever-growing armed groups that threatened civilians. As a result, the local population became distrustful of the former colonial power.

Traore has made only one public appearance since the massacre, and an assessment – completed in late August – questions his mental state and fitness to hold office. “We see in this the entire powerlessness of the authorities to respond seriously and credibly to the terrorist threat,” the report reads.

Meanwhile, Russian mercenaries who arrived in Burkina Faso almost a year ago have failed to bring peace to the country and are being drawn out, at least in part, to help Moscow in its war with Ukraine, the assessment adds. According to the report, increased security in the capital Ouagadougou around key buildings may be linked to the withdrawal of a large part of the 100-strong “Bear” unit of Wagner’s mercenary group, which was entrusted with Traore’s personal protection. Since the death of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash last year, the mercenary group has been under new leadership, but Wagner is still commonly referred to by its old name in the Sahel.

The report said the unit was redeployed to counter a Ukrainian invasion of Russian border regions and may be replaced by less capable Russian soldiers.

Criticism of the army by relatives of Barsalogho dead and survivors, who claim the army fled the attack, has been reinforced by recent accusations of cannibalism by Burkina Faso soldiers, the report adds. It cites videos posted publicly on social media that appear to show soldiers from the 15th Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR-15) eating parts of dead jihadists.

The report adds: “On July 24, 2024, the General Staff of the Burkina Faso Army issued a press release in which it “condemns these gruesome acts” and “asserts that action will be taken to formally identify the origin of these photos” as their authors. ” He sees the incident as another sign of discipline in the army that has been deteriorating since the coup two years ago that brought Traore to power and led to France’s departure.

CNN has reviewed videos of alleged cannibalism that appear to show Burkina Faso soldiers dismembering and holding body parts of apparently dead jihadists.

The French security assessment adds that violence in Burkina Faso has begun to spread to at least one of its peaceful southern neighbors, citing an attack in Togo by Burkina Faso’s border town of Kompienga on July 20 that resulted in the capture of an army camp Togolese, killing at least 12 soldiers and looting weapons. “Rumors point to the creation of a new GSIM Wilaya module for Togo,” the report adds, referring to a new al-Qaeda branch in the country, “fueled by terrorists from the North.”

“Barsalogho is proof that Burkina Faso is teetering on the brink because terrorists have enormous control over the country. Six hundred people have died and that is terrible, but what is worse is that it seems as if it never happened because the killers continue to live free, without fear of revenge,” the assessment said.