44 civilians killed in Burkina Faso 'terrorist' attacks

OUAGADOUGOU — Forty-four civilians have been killed by "armed terrorist groups" in two villages in northeastern Burkina Faso, near the Niger border, a regional governor said on Saturday.

The provisional toll of "this despicable and barbaric attack", which targeted the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi in northeast Burkina Faso overnight Thursday, "is 44 civilians killed and others wounded," said Rodolphe Sorgho, lieutenant governor of the Sahel region.

Sorgho said that 31 people had died in Kourakou and 13 in Tondobi.

The regional official said that an army offensive put "out of action the armed terrorist groups" that carried out the killings.

The governor also assured that "actions to stabilize the area are under way".

The country has been grappling with extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

A resident of Kourakou said that "a large number of terrorists burst into the village" late on Thursday.

"All night long, we heard gunfire. It was on Friday morning that we saw that there were several dozen dead," he added.

Locals said the village had been targeted in retaliation to the lynching of two extremists a few days earlier who had tried to steal cattle.

Burkina Faso's new military chief last week vowed to step up a "dynamic offensive" against extremists following a string of insurgent attacks since the start of the year.

In February, the IS group claimed responsibility for killing more than 70 soldiers, wounding dozens and taking five hostage, in an ambush on a military convoy in the north. A few weeks before that, extremists killed at least 32 people in numerous attacks across the country.

Agencies Via Xinhua