Al Qaeda Affiliate Claims Responsibility For Attack On Burkina Faso Soldiers, Says US Intelligence Group

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A U.S-based intelligence group SITE on Sunday said Al Qaeda affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) group has claimed responsibility for an attack it carried out on June 11 that killed over 100 Burkina Faso soldiers in the Mansila area near the border with Niger.

According to Reuters, a spokesman for Burkina Faso’s military junta has not responded to comments about the attack in the area.

The US intelligence group quoted a JNIM statement as saying that five days ago “fighters stormed a military post in the town, where they killed 107 soldiers and took control of the site”.

Several videos shared online by the insurgents showed raging gunfire around the army base.
Another video showed a display of dozens of weapons and ammunition, and at least seven Burkina Faso soldiers captured by the insurgents.

Although, Reuters has not authenticated the videos.

The reported attack was one of the deadliest suffered by the West African Sahel nation’s army, alongside neighbours Niger and Mali, struggling to contain insurgencies linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

For more than a decade, the insurgencies have killed thousands and displaced over two million in Burkina Faso.

The unrest is also threatening the stability of the region as the insurgents, who control swathes of territories in Burkina Faso and Mali, use them as bases to target southern coastal countries.