14 killed by armed insurgents in Burkina Faso

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – At least 14 people, including nine from one family, were killed by armed insurgents in Burkina Faso’s Bam province, media reports said Saturday.

The attack occurred Wednesday between the villages of Bayen Foulgo and Komsilga in Zimtanga commune, the Burkina Information Agency public news service reported, citing security sources and witnesses.

The victims were repairing a bridge connecting the two localities at the time of the attack.

“Armed men got wind of the initiative and attacked the residents on foot sheltering in the fields adjacent to the road and near the bridge,” said the report. “The first four people who arrived for work were kidnapped and stabbed to death.”

Clashes erupted between attackers and army auxiliaries who rushed to the scene where others were killed by the attackers as they retreated, it said.

Media reports indicate that on Sept. 12, armed insurgents issued an ultimatum to Zimtanga residents instructing them to leave the area after they refused to sell them necessities.

Burkina Faso has suffered persistent insecurity posed by an insurgency that spread from neighboring Mali in the past decade.

At the UN General Assembly in New York City on Friday, Burkina Faso’s junta leader, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Damiba, urged support from the international community in the fight against violent insecurity which he said had displaced more than 1.5 million people as of Aug. 31.