Burkina Faso: UN calls for ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of dozens of kidnapped women

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights demanded yesterday Monday the “immediate and unconditional” release of more than fifty women kidnapped last Thursday and Friday in the northern part of Burkina Faso, an action attributed to jihadists.

“I call for the immediate and unconditional release of all the abducted women” and “that the national authorities immediately carry out an effective, impartial and independent investigation to identify and hold those responsible,” Volker Turk said, according to a press release released by the his services in Geneva.

The Austrian stressed that he was “disturbed” by the kidnapping of dozens of women “in broad daylight”, which, according to him, may be “the first attack of this nature that deliberately targets women in Burkina Faso”.

According to local sources who spoke to AFP, the women were abducted on Thursday and Friday by alleged jihadists in Arbida, in northern Burkina Faso. This area, in Soom province, is often affected by violent incidents.

Residents and officials who asked not to be named said a first group of about forty women were abducted some ten kilometers southeast of Arbida, while a second group of about twenty other women were abducted a day later north of the community. Some were able to escape and returned to their village, where they revealed what happened.

RES-EMP

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