20 dead in mosque attack in Burkina Faso

Ahmed Adel

Burkina Faso security sources announced on Saturday the killing of at least 16 people after gunmen stormed a mosque as worshippers prayed.

The attack occurred at the Grand Mosque in the small town of Salmossi in the Oudalan region.

Thirteen worshippers died instantly while three more succumbed to their wounds later. Two more are still in a critical condition.

On Saturday, some 1,000 people are reported to have protested in the capital, Ouagadougou, denouncing the violence and the presence of foreign military forces in the region.

Several hundred thousand Burkinabe citizens have fled their homes because of the ongoing violence in the country and half a million people no longer have access to health care.

The deteriorating situation is causing an “unprecedented humanitarian emergency”, the UN refugee agency warned on Friday. At a press briefing in Geneva, spokesperson Andrew Mbogori said that some 486,000 have been forced to flee within the country, 267,000 of whom in the past 3 months alone.

During a Security Council meeting on peace in Africa, held on Monday, the UN Secretary-General declared that the spread of terrorist networks is a growing threat across African national borders, with a pervasive climate crisis exacerbating violence, and leading to resource shortages.

In Saturday’s statement, António Guterres expressed his deep condolences to the families of the deceased, and the people and the Government of Burkina Faso, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

Guterres went on to reiterate the commitment of the United Nations to work with Burkina Faso to promote social cohesion, and ensure the country stays on the path towards sustainable development.

This attack is considered the second of a kind during the same week. Around 20 people have been killed in an attack on a gold mining site in northern Burkina Faso.

The west African nation has become part of a four-and-a-half year jihadist insurgency in the Sahel region, especially since Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi announced in April 2019 the formation of a Daesh branch in west Africa.

In the aftermath of several high-profile attacks in the capital city of Ouagadougou between 2016 and 2018, intelligence services of Burkina Faso launched anti-terrorism campaigns that resulted in the arrest of more than 200 suspected militants.

Amira Abdel-Halim, an East Africa expert from Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, has said Burkina Faso has long been involved in ethnic and religious clashes, which armed groups are trying to take advantage of in gaining territory, and recruiting new elements in the north of the country.

The political expert told The Reference in an interview that Daesh and al-Qaeda are competing in the Sahel region, the matter which will increase terrorism rates as well as the spread of armed groups.