“About sixty” people died on February 26 in the attack allegedly carried out by jihadists in Partiga, a community in the eastern part of Burkina Faso, for which no official account has been announced to date, a human rights organization said yesterday. .

There was no reaction — neither confirmation nor denial — from regional and national authorities when contacted by AFP.

On the morning of February 26, “groups of armed terrorists invaded the community (Partiaga), killed, destroyed property and stole farmed animals,” reported the Burkina Faso Movement for Human and People’s Rights (Mouvement burkinabè des droits de l’Homme et du peuple, MBDHP).

“In the absence of any intervention by the security forces, the horror lasted all day”, as the VDP (s.a. paramilitaries) were “very quickly” overwhelmed, according to the same non-governmental organization, which still spoke of missing persons, while civilizing the the fact that the authorities have not made public an account of the victims.

Iber Jameogo, head of local government in the district where Partiaga is administratively located, promised last week that an account would be made public “as soon as possible”.

According to the MBDHP, the attack caused a “massive displacement” of the population. The organization called on the authorities to commit to carrying out their mission to “guarantee the safety of the population and their property”.

After the attack, residents of the Partiaga community said they had lived through a “horror movie” and complained that the army had “abandoned” them.

Three days after the attack, thousands of people demonstrated in the nearby community of Diapaga, demanding “more security”.

Burkina Faso has experienced a terrifying upsurge in jihadist violence since the start of the year, with scores of civilians and soldiers killed almost every week.

“Tragedy”

Yesterday Tuesday, in a press release that it published, the National Council of Civil Society Organizations (Conseil national des organizations de la société civile, CNOSC) spoke of a “very serious situation” in sectors of the country, especially in its eastern part, where things are “very worrying”.

Road access to provinces in the region has been cut off by jihadists and the provincial capital Fada Ngurma is “almost surrounded”. The same conditions prevail in Kaya, capital of the North-Central prefecture, which is “progressively surrounded” by armed groups, according to the Council.

In this region, public services have been closed, while in the Sahel region, which neighbors Mali and Niger, a “tragedy” is unfolding, with the humanitarian situation now “catastrophic”, according to CNOSC.

“Every day the security situation worsens further, threatening the very existence of our state,” assessed CNOSC President Herman Doanio.

Civic organizations are asking the authorities to immediately send security forces and paramilitaries to “completely retake all communities” that have fallen into the hands of “terrorist organizations” or are at risk.

Action by groups that pledge allegiance to either the Islamic State or al-Qaeda has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people since 2015, according to non-governmental organizations, while displacing another two million civilians.