The General Staff in Burkina Faso announced yesterday, Saturday, the killing of four civilians who were army helpers and a police officer from Burkina Faso during an attack in the north-central part of the country.

The agency confirmed that more than 65 terrorists were killed during several operations in August in the west of the country.

One of the generals stated that following an attack on a site of the Volunteer Defense for the Homeland, civilian assistants to the army, in the vicinity of Silmiougou (central north), several police units were deployed “to reinforce.”

A police officer and four members of the paramilitary police lost their lives during the fighting, and the attackers were forced to retreat in the face of the firepower of the units that managed to neutralize about ten terrorists.

Moreover, the army in another press release pointed out that the "various measures" implemented between August 7 and September 1 in the west of the country allowed for the “neutralization of more than 65 terrorists.”

The units found very large quantities of weapons, ammunition, food, vehicles, and communication means in the dismantled terrorist bases.

The General Staff also confirms that these measures enabled the resettlement of populations in certain areas and the restoration of electricity and telephone networks.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been caught in a swirl of violence perpetrated by jihadist groups linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

This violence has resulted in the deaths of more than 16,000 civilians and military personnel since 2015, including over 5,000 since the beginning of 2023, according to the NGO "Acled."

This violence has also led to the displacement of more than two million people within the country.
On September 30, 2022, a coup led to Captain Ibrahim Traoré coming to power in Ouagadougou instead of Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, the author of the first coup that ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré a few months earlier.