In Barsalogho, civilians didn't have time to finish digging the vast trench meant to protect their village from recurring jihadist attacks. On Sunday, August 25, a video showing dozens of corpses lying in a wide ditch under construction around the community in north-central Burkina Faso circulated on social media. Alongside inert bodies in civilian clothes, the clip showed abandoned picks and shovels, but also men armed with Kalashnikovs against a backdrop of gunfire.
The previous morning, dozens of men on motorcycles machine-gunned these civilians who, like those in other areas threatened by jihadist groups, had been encouraged to dig defensive trenches by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the head of Ouagadougou's ruling junta. According to security and humanitarian sources in Burkina Faso and West Africa contacted by Le Monde, the death toll varies between 100 and several hundred.
This makes it one of the deadliest jihadist assaults on civilians since the attack in Solhan (north-east). In June 2021, 160 people were killed in that attack, which was attributed to Nusrat al-Islam (affiliated with Al-Qaeda) who nonetheless never officially claimed responsibility. In a message posted on social media on Saturday, the group led by Malian jihadist Iyad Ag Ghali announced that it had taken "total control of the headquarters of the Burkinabe militia in Barsalogho," without giving any further details.
The communication minister, Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, merely pointed out that "most of the victims are innocent civilians, women, children, men and the elderly," in an interview conducted at Kaya hospital on Sunday and subsequently broadcast on national television. At his side, visiting the hundreds of wounded who had been transferred there, the security minister, Mahamadou Sana, admitted to "several" dead and wounded in the ranks of the army and the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP, the army's civilian auxiliaries), and promised a response.
Struggling to prevent the deterioration in security across his country, Captain Traoré had personally encouraged his compatriots to dig trenches around their villages to limit jihadist incursions and facilitate the army's response. "Everyone needs to get to work [...] I don't want to hear any more 'We're under attack.' You are going to mobilize your populations to dig trenches and protect yourselves until the machines [ordered] arrive at your homes," the young transitional president ordered the VDP representatives convened for the occasion in Ouagadougou at the end of May.
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