Jihadists kidnap about 50 women in Burkina Faso

The military regime that commands Burkina Faso said this Monday (16) that about 50 women were kidnapped by radical Islamic groups on the 12th and 13th of this month in Soum province.

The mass kidnapping is the first recorded in the African country, located in the Sahel region, since violence by jihadist groups spread across the territory from 2015.

Armed men captured the women when they were picking berries on the outskirts of Liki village. Heads of the family, they were looking for food for their relatives in the midst of a serious food security crisis, according to reports by residents to the Reuters agency.

A resident of the neighboring town of Aribinda said women walk up to 4 km to fetch food. Thousands of people have been killed and more than 2.7 million displaced across the Sahel by violence and rising levels of hunger, according to the UN.

Burkina Faso is one of the West African countries hit by terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda. Insurgents have blockaded parts of the north of the country in recent months, exacerbating food shortages and supply deliveries.

Last September, dozens of soldiers were killed when jihadists attacked a convoy of about 150 vehicles carrying supplies to Djibo, the capital of Soum, the same province where the women were kidnapped last week.

Frustration with the authorities’ failure to combat the violence was one of the factors that created popular support for a military coup that, a year ago, deposed President Roch Kabore. Months later, in September, the military man who had led the coup was deposed in another coup, plunging the country into even more instability.