Al-Qaeda-linked militants kill up to 300 people in Burkina Faso’s ‘worst terrorist attack’

From the Telegraph

Militants linked to al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for massacring as many as 300 people in Burkina Faso in what is thought to be the country’s worst terrorist attack.

Gunmen opened fire on civilians and soldiers who were digging trenches for use by the army in Barsalogho commune, in Sanmatenga Province.

Unverified videos, claimed to be of the aftermath, showed bodies piled around the unfinished trenches.

Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist at the Soufan Center security think tank, said at least 100 bodies were counted in the videos by JNIM, an umbrella coalition of al-Qaeda-aligned groups.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that it had gained “total control over a militia position” in Barsalogho.

Burkina Faso’s military junta did not reveal a death toll from the attack, but Mahamadou Sana, its security minister, said: “We are not going to accept such barbarity on the territory.”

About half of Burkina Faso is beyond government control, as the country has been ravaged by increasing jihadi attacks encircling the capital. Jihadists linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have killed thousands and displaced more than two million people.