Northern Burkina Faso has experienced two separate terrorist attacks on villages resulting in the deaths of at least 44 civilians, according to authorities. Governor Rodolphe Sorgho blamed terrorists for the attacks without naming a specific group and expressed his condolences to the families of those killed and well wishes to the wounded.
Little information is currently available about the attacks, but one village resident reported that "a large number of terrorists" attacked their village on Thursday night, with gunfire lasting throughout the night. Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world, has become a hotspot for Islamist militant violence linked to groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The violence initially began in neighboring Mali in 2012 but has since spread throughout the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert. Since 2018, large areas of northern and eastern Burkina Faso have become ungovernable, causing millions to flee their homes due to fears of further raids by gunmen who frequently attack rural communities on motorbikes. Thousands of people have been killed in the region.