Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso – Authorities have confirmed that unknown assailants killed 44 people in two attacks in northern Burkina Faso on Thursday night. The villages of Kourakou and Tondobi in the Sahel region were targeted, an area that has been overrun by Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that have carried out repeated attacks for years.
It is unclear which group was responsible for the attacks. Authorities have blamed “armed terrorist groups.” The attacks add to the already high number of casualties from the violence in Burkina Faso. More than 2 million people have been displaced and thousands have been killed in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The unrest has also led to two coups last year by the military, which has vowed to retake control of the country but has failed to stem the bloodshed. The violence began in Mali in 2012, when Islamists hijacked a Tuareg separatist uprising. Since then, the violence has spread into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger and threatens to destabilize coastal countries further afield.
The government has struggled to contain the violence and has relied on support from the international community. The United Nations has called for increased efforts to address the root causes of the conflict, including poverty, inequality, and the lack of basic services. The government has also been criticized for its human rights abuses and failure to protect civilians from the violence.
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