Islamic State says they did it. BBC: IS belatedly claims Burkina Faso church attack.
This was last week on the 14th claiming the attack that happened on Feb 25th. The article notes that while no one has claimed the mosque attack on Feb 25th, Al Qaeda affiliates attacked the nearby army outposts the same day. Other sources add that the massacres have continued
On February 25, 170 people were killed in the towns of Komsilka, Nodin and Soro in Yatenga, in northern Burkina Faso. On March 4, RFI (Radio France Internationale) reported, new massacres occurred in the villages of Bigbou and Soualimou in eastern Burkina Faso’s Komondjari province, near the border with Niger.
and also says about the church attack
Burkina Faso’s military junta blamed the attack on Ansaroul Islam, a local armed group linked to Al Qaeda, and the Islamic State of the Sahel (EIS).
The claims of the two groups coordinating were interesting enough that Liam Karr, over at ISW, commented about IS and JNIM
An informal détente with al Qaeda’s Sahelian affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wa al Muslimeen (JNIM), since July 2023 has enabled ISSP to consolidate control over these areas. The rate and severity of clashes between JNIM and ISSP had significantly decreased in the tri-border region of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger after July 2023.
He goes on to point out that IS (Islamic State) has brought in foreign fighters more interested in attacking western targets than becoming embroiled in local feuds. IS operates in the NE of Burkina Faso along the Niger border while Al Qaeda is more along the NW border with Mali. On March 21, at least 100 Islamic State militants ambushed Nigerien forces in northwestern Niger on March 21, killing at least 20 soldiers — ISW Africa File.
The IS network in northwest Africa has also already shown an interest in organizing external activity, given that the UN Security Council reported that it had organized a now-disrupted attack cell operating out of Morocco and Spain.[19]
Turkey, Iran and Morocco jockey for position in post-French Burkina Faso.
VOA: La Turquie, l'Iran et le Maroc avancent leurs pions au Sahel
Morocco wants to put in the railroad. The Turks have been selling Bayraktar drones to Burkina Faso to the extent that Capt Traore awarded their CEO a medal.
At the beginning of 2024, Mali took delivery of a new batch of Turkish Baykar drones prized for their performance, earning the CEO of the company that manufactures them, Haluk Bayraktar, a decoration in Ouagadougou in April 2022 on the instructions of Burkina Faso's strongman, Captain Ibrahim Traoré.
The article says, however, that the drone usage in Burkina Faso has resulted in collateral civilian deaths. News reports also implicate the government forces in even more civilian deaths.
VOA: Burkina Faso's Security Forces Are Killing Civilians, Say Survivors of One Massacre
Through the window of the home where she hid, she said, she saw more than 15 relatives killed.
She said a soldier motioned for her to lie down silently. The men dressed, looked and sounded like soldiers who pass through inspecting people's documents, she said.
The third survivor who spoke to AP, a 55-year-old man, said villagers had been accused of working with jihadis because they refused to join tens of thousands of volunteers fighting alongside the military.
Other sources have noted
Residents who took refuge in Fada N’gourma, the capital of neighboring Gourma province, told the press that the new Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) was involved in the massacres in Komondjari province. The BIR, created last October by junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré, is stationed in the area of Gayeri in which the massacres took place, the Burkina Faso Information agency reported two weeks ago.
The Alliance of the Sahel States, AES, has formed a joint task force to counter terrorism, BBC says. ECOWAS has tried to do the same thing, but it seems to have no funding. Key ECOWAS member Nigeria is often urged to join BRICS and makes arms deals with Moscow.
Meanwhile, the US was asked to leave Niger, where we have a bases with up to 1000 soldiers who monitor terrorist activity around the uranium mines. This was due to condescending and threatening remarks that are speculated to have been along the lines of you’d better not have a secret uranium deal with Iran because we won’t allow it. This was followed by what exactly do you mean by leave? Uranium being one of those touchy things.
And now, ISIS has recently attacked Moscow and everyone agrees that IS should not have any uranium at all.
some VOA videos:
Burkina Faso refugees in Mali www.voaafrique.com/…
The humanitarian situation is worrying in Koro in central Mali. Since the beginning of last week, the city has been hosting thousands of refugees from Burkina Faso. According to the national commission in charge of refugees in Koro, about 25,000 refugees have fled their native Burkina Faso to Koro because of the recent violence.
In Burkina Faso, an awareness-raising caravan against drug use, the Oskimo Tour, will travel to a dozen localities to raise awareness among young people about the harmful effects of drug use.
Burkina Faso has been under terrorist attack for nearly a decade and is waging a war in various forms to regain all of its territory. One of the regions most affected by the crisis is the Sahel of Burkina Faso. In this part of the country, as in many others, traditional and customary chiefs are at the forefront of promoting coexistence and cohesion in the hope of a return to peace.
Since September 30, 2022 with the coming to power of Captain Traoré in Burkina Faso, the country has experienced a new diplomatic orientation. The traditional major partners have given way to other countries that are considered more willing to help Burkina Faso. Among these new strategic partners of the country, Russia is at the top. Over the months, the influence of Putin's country in Burkina Faso has taken a prominent place due to military cooperation but also thanks to social networks.
Russia has rebranded its Wagner paramilitary group as an "expeditionary corps" now controlled by Moscow’s military intelligence arm, and the force is offering a "regime survival package" to autocratic regimes in Africa, Britain’s Royal United Services Institute says. Henry Ridgwell reports.
Russia misinformation blames western Bill Gates led program Target Malaria — that releases genetically modified mosquitoes to combat dengue and malaria — for causing the recent outbreaks.
www.voaafrique.com/…
Moscow is seeking to shore up its support in Africa and increase distrust of the West after failing to gain greater influence in Europe following the invasion of Ukraine, Washington denounces. "Diplomats or journalists who worked in embassies or media outlets like Russia Today and who were expelled from Europe have not returned home. They have been redeployed to Africa and Latin America," Jamie Rubin, coordinator of the US State Department's counter-disinformation watch, told AFP.
BUSINESS
German Federal Minister Svenja Schulze along with World Bank Vice President Ousmane Diagana visit Burkina Faso and Benin to promote non-lethal aid.
SPORTS
Burkina Faso has a new soccer coach Brama Traoré.
www.voaafrique.com/…
Sombo, Russian mixed martial arts, comes to Burkina Faso.
www.aljazeera.com/…
CULTURE
The movie Sira, Burkina Faso’s first film submitted to the Oscars since 1989, is written and directed by Apolline Traoré has already won awards. The plot involves a fierce African woman as a protagonist who fights back against all odds.
"My first intention with this film is really to communicate what I had in my heart and how hurt I was and how my people were. And the second was to tell the world what was happening."
As she started her research, Traoré said she realised that women had "a very big role in this war" – even if they were typically portrayed as victims, mostly in refugee camps.
"When I started writing it, I went to a refugee camp and I spoke to those women, and an incredible story came out of it.”
(Trigger warning. This movie involves violence and sexual assault and so does this trailer.)