Burkina Faso Imposes Curfew To Fight Jihadists

Burkina Faso has put the North and parts of the centre east region under curfew to aid the fight against Jihadists, according to official documents seen by AFP on Sunday.

The long-running insurgency in the impoverished Sahel Nation has left thousands of civilians, police and soldiers dead and forced more than two million people to flee their homes.

The curfews ban the movement overnight of people and the use of two and four-wheeled vehicles.

Secretary general of the govern-orate for the North, Kouilga Albert Zongo, Said the curfew would help the army in the region bordering Mali, from where the insurgency swept in back in 2015.

A curfew was also set up for march over Koulpelogo province, under an administrative communique from the high commission in the area close to Ghana and Togo.

Jihadist assaults have increased this year leaving dozens of civilians and members of the security forces dead every week.

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Around 40 percent of the nation’s territory lies outside government control.

Anger within the Burkinabe military at failures to roll back the insurgency led to two coups last year.

Local sources reported Sunday that unidentified “heavily armed men” on motorbikes attacked the station Saturday at Makalondi, several kilometers behind the Burkinabe border, with police saying one civilian suffered gunshot wounds.

A local official told AFP there had been substantial material damage.

The station had previously been targeted in December 2021 in an attack by presumed jihadis which left six people dead.

Makalondi is in the tri-border zone near the frontiers with Burkina Faso and Mali and prone to attacks from armed jihadi groups — notably the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).