About 66 women and babies kidnapped by suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso have been released, local public TV, controlled by the military regime, announced this Friday (20).
The news comes four days after the military reported that dozens of women had been captured by radical Islamic groups on the 12th and 13th of this month in Soum province, in the north of the country.
Images broadcast by Radio-Televisión de Burkina showed the women who, according to the vehicle, were released after an operation by the Armed Forces and transferred to the country’s capital, Ouagudugu. In all, there would be 27 adult women and 39 babies and girls.
“They have found their freedom again after eight long days in the hands of the kidnappers”, said one presenter. 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.
Some of the women had already managed to escape from the kidnappers. According to the Al Jazeera network, they reported that armed men captured them while looking for food and forced them to walk through the bush for an entire day.
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.
According to estimates by analysts and regime officials, fighting with terrorist groups has already displaced nearly two million civilians and left at least 40% of the country’s 21.5 million citizens living on the margins of state control.
Frustration with the authorities’ failure to combat the violence was one of the factors that generated popular support for a military coup that, a year ago, deposed President Roch Kaboré. In September, the military man who led the coup was deposed in another coup, plunging the country into even more instability.
A former French colony, Burkina Faso saw relations with the European country deteriorate, to the point where organized groups and the civilian population demanded the departure of French troops and the entry of troops and mercenaries from Russia, such as the Wagner Group.
Earlier this Friday, hundreds of people gathered in the capital to demand the departure of French soldiers and the country’s ambassador. In the acts, it was possible to see several Russian flags and even pictures of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Also this Friday, the regime said that two armed attacks left at least 18 dead in the north and northwest of the country on Thursday (19). Most of the victims belong to the armed group Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), made up of civilians who say they help the military fight jihadists.
Created in December 2019, the group is made up of volunteers who receive about two weeks of military training and then work alongside the Army, normally carrying out tasks related to surveillance, intelligence gathering and escort.
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