Militants tied to Al-Qaeda slaughter 14 troops in Burkina Faso attack

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A jihadist attack on a military post killed at least 14 soldiers in northern Burkina Faso, which has seen a flare-up in violence in recent weeks, security officials told AFP on Tuesday.

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Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Sahel, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), claimed responsibility for the attack in Bagade on Saturday.

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Burkina Faso, which has been ruled by a military junta since a coup d’etat in 2022, has endured deadly attacks by jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group for more than a decade, particularly in the north.

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After a relative lull in the West African country, the attacks have resumed recently.

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One security official, who asked not to be named, gave a “provisional toll” of “14 soldiers killed and many others missing” after the latest attack.

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“Every effort has been made to ‘neutralise’ the individuals who carried out the attack,” another security official said, also speaking anonymously.

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“Many of them were killed during the counterattack.”

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WAMAPS, a group of West African journalists specialising in security news in the Sahel, said “nearly 20” soldiers and civilian volunteer fighters who support the military (VDPs) could have died.

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It said JNIM had released “a shocking video showing around 15 dead soldiers, some of whom had been burned alive”.

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VDPs, or Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland, are civilian auxiliaries of the army engaged in combatting extremists.

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In February, JNIM claimed responsibility for several attacks on soldiers and VDPs.

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More than 130 people were killed over a period of about 10 days, according to ACLED, an NGO which records casualties in conflict worldwide.

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The junta in Ouagadougou rarely reports on jihadist attacks now and regularly claims it is regaining ground from armed groups.

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According to the Global Terrorism Index, the Sahel region — particularly Burkina, Niger and Mali — accounted in 2025 for nearly half of all deaths linked to violent extremism worldwide.

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The United Nations said in November that the decision by the three military-run countries to leave regional bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) “has created a gap in regional coordination, complicating collective responses to escalating violent extremism across the Sahel”.

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AFP

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