Jihadist Bloodbath: 500+ Dead in Shocking Massacre!

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A brutal and shocking massacre occurred in a town in north-central Burkina Faso on August 24th after suspected jihadists opened fire on hundreds of its residents while they were digging trenches around their village to protect it from attacks.

The attack outside of the town of Barsalogho is one of the deadliest assaults since terrorist organizations connected to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) moved into Burkin Faso from neighboring Mali almost a decade ago, plunging the country into a security crisis that led to a military coup in January 2022.

Burkina Faso’s ruling military junta, under the leadership of Ibrahim Traoré, quickly condemned the violence but did not provide information as to how many people were killed or wounded.

Hundreds of wounded victims were evacuated to healthcare facilities in the city of Kaya, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Barsalogho, where a source who did not wish to be named for fear of retribution said the death toll from the violent attack could be higher than 500.

The source said through a telephone call to Reuters that Burkinabè troops forced reluctant residents of Barsalogho to halt their daily activities and start digging trenches around their town to deter Islamist insurgents. 

Hundreds of Barsalogho residents were outside when the suspected jihadists carried out their attack, according to the Reuters source, citing the accounts of several injured victims in Kaya.

"All they could do was lie down on top of each other. It was carnage," the Reuters source said, adding that gunmen also attacked women who were collecting firewood nearby. 

A 38-year-old woman who survived the brutal massacre described the horror and pain of searching through the dead bodies to find her missing brothers. 

"We went out with carts to collect the bodies of my older brothers," the woman said, who escaped the attack with her toddler. "We spent a long time going through bodies piled up under trees."

The woman who an aid worker in Kaya interviewed said the militants didn’t stop attacking the civilians and soldiers until later in the day when drones arrived. She said it took three days for the survivors, primarily women and children who were sent to collect firewood and cut long grass, to collect the dead bodies.

Several videos filmed by the militants and released on social media showed more than a hundred bodies piled on a trench, most of them in civilian clothing. The woman said that, aside from civilians, Burkinabè troops and members of a volunteer army auxiliary unit known as VDP were also attacked by the jihadists. One family she knew lost 30 members, while another family of 13 members was completely wiped out.

The relatives of the Barsalogho residents killed in the attack also issued a statement on August 25th in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, relaying a similar chain of events. They also said 400 people lost their lives to the assault, either on the spot or by succumbing to their injuries later on. 

Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, the junta’s spokesperson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He headed a delegation of officials that visited hospitalized survivors in Kaya on August 25th and Barsalogho on August 26th.

"The government joins you in prayers for the souls of the deceased," Ouedraogo told local media during the trip, saying the jihadists killed people engaged in "community work."

He also praised health workers for their efforts and said the Burkina Faso government would cover medical bills and provide humanitarian support.

Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, a militant jihadist organization operating in West Africa and the Maghreb region, claimed it attacked soldiers and militia members excavating trenches and killed nearly 300, describing all the victims as fighters, not civilians. The Al-Qaeda affiliate also claimed that it seized control of a suspected military headquarters in Barsalogho on August 24th.

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