Burkina Faso has been hit by deadly terrorists attacks in several parts of the country, reports said on Tuesday.Bloody weekend in Burkina Faso: Suspected jihadists executed about 20 passengers of a public transport bus in the centre-east and Cascades regions, APA has learnt from corroborating sources.

The first incident occurred on Saturday 28 January 2023. According to our sources, armed men intercepted a transport bus between Tenkodogo and Ouargaye (center-east). They executed at least four civilians, including the driver, two apprentices and a passenger, and freed others before setting the bus on fire.

A similar scene took place on the evening of Sunday, January 29, 2023, in the western part of the country, in the Cascades region.

The government confirmed this “tragedy” and reported that 15 civilians were killed. In their statement, the Burkinabe authorities said that two minibuses on their way from Banfora to Mangodara were intercepted in the village of Linguekoro. Of the 24 passengers, nine of them were released.

The lifeless bodies of the other 15 passengers, all men, with bullet holes, were found on January 30, 2023 in the vicinity of the village of Linguekoro, the governor of the Cascades region, Colonel Jean Charles Some, said in a statement, adding that the two vehicles were also burned.

Security sources attributed the “massacre” to militants of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM), affiliated to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), analyzing it as “reprisals” and “messages” to the government for hiring civilian auxiliaries. “It is not gratuitous that they spared the women. They killed the men, because they are the ones who go to the front, who make up the VDPs,” one officer explained.

In Falagountou, in the north, a clash pitted state “fighting units” against jihadist groups on the afternoon of Monday, January 30, 2023, when armed men attacked the village.

“The provisional death toll recorded is 12 combatants, including two VDPs. One civilian also lost his life. At least five gendarmes were wounded and a dozen others are reported missing,” said the Burkinabe army, which claims to have “prevented a massacre of the population.” In their response, the defense and security forces have neutralized about 15 jihadists.

Since 2015, the country has been the scene of jihadist attacks that have claimed the lives of several thousand people and displaced more than two million.