2022 Namsiguia bombing | |
---|---|
Part of Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso | |
Location | Namssiguia, Bam Province, Burkina Faso |
Date | August 9, 2022 |
Deaths | 15 soldiers |
Injured | 1+ [1] |
Perpetrator | JNIM or ISGS (alleged by Burkina Faso) [2] |
On August 9, 2022, two bombings in Namssiguia, Bam Province, Burkina Faso killed 15 Burkinabe soldiers and injured an unknown number of others. [3]
Throughout the early 2010s, jihadist movements spread widely throughout the Sahel, and reached Burkina Faso in 2015. [4] Since then, the Burkinabe government has struggled to hold back both the Islamist insurgents and the tribal warfare and violence, which has escalated since the war's outbreak. [5] In early 2022, the Burkinabe military under Paul-Henri Damiba overthrew President Roch Kaboré, citing the latter's inability to control the violence as a reason for the coup. [6] However, jihadist attacks continued in Burkina Faso throughout 2022. [7]
Prior to the bombing, jihadists had raided a nearby village and killed five civilians and five militiamen. [8] While Burkinabe soldiers were driving in the region, one truck hit a roadside IED, killing several troops. A second explosion went off after another convoy of soldiers arrived on the scene to help the wounded, killing them too. [9]
On 2 March 2018, at least eight heavily armed militants launched an assault on key locations throughout Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. Targets included the French embassy and the headquarters of Burkina Faso's military.
Terrorism in Burkina Faso refers to non-state actor violence in Burkina Faso carried out with the intent of causing fear and spreading extremist ideology. Terrorist activity primarily involves religious terrorism conducted by foreign-based organizations, although some activity occurs because of communal frustration over the lack of economic development. Recent attacks have concentrated in the Hauts-Bassins, Boucle du Mouhoun, Nord, Sahel, and Est regions, along the border with Mali and Niger. A series of attacks in Ouagadougou in 2016, 2017, and 2018 by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliates garnered international attention.
The Sanmatenga attacks occurred on 8 September 2019 in the Sanmatenga Province, Burkina Faso. In the Barsalogho Department a vehicle transporting people and goods, that was returning from a market, drove over an improvised explosive device (IED). 15 passengers were killed and six were injured in the IED attack. Most of the victims were traders. Meanwhile, around 50 km to the east, a convoy with vans carrying provisions for people displaced by fighting was attacked by gunmen. In this attack, 14 people were killed. It is unknown who carried out this attacks.
Events in the year 2021 in Mali.
Since 2015, the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger has been a hotbed for jihadist forces originating from Mali. The insurgency has taken place in two distinct regions of Niger. In southwest, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and the Nusrat al-Islam have carried out attacks in the tri-border area with Burkina Faso and Mali. Meanwhile, in the southeast, the Islamic State in the West African Province has established control in parts of southern Niger.
An ongoing war and civil conflict between the Government of Burkina Faso and Islamist rebels began in August 2015 and has led to the displacement of over 2 million people and the deaths of at least 10,000 civilians and combatants.
An Islamist insurgency has been ongoing in the Sahel region of West Africa since the 2011 Arab Spring. In particular, the intensive conflict in the three countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been referred to as the Sahel War.
The siege of Djibo is an ongoing blockade of the city of Djibo in Burkina Faso by several factions of Jihadist Islamist rebels. The siege began in February 2022, and is part of the Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso.
On August 4, 2022, jihadist militants ambushed a counter-terrorism operation organized by the Burkina Faso Armed Forces, killing four civilians and nine VDP militiamen. The Burkinabe government claimed that thirty-four insurgents were killed immediately after the attack.
On September 5, 2022, a bus travelling from Djibo to the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou hit a mine outside the town of Silgadji, killing 35 people and injured dozens more.
On September 26, 2022, a convoy bound for the besieged city of Djibo in northern Burkina Faso was attacked by armed gunmen, killing 27 soldiers and 10 civilians. The Mali-based jihadist group Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility for the attack. The Gaskinde attack was a key reason for the September 30 coup in Burkina Faso, as many frontline officers were disgruntled about Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba's handling of the jihadist insurgency.
On October 13, 2022, an IED hit a civilian bus travelling along the Bandiagara-Goundaka highway in rural Mali, killing 10 civilians and injuring dozens more. The attack was alleged to be coordinated by Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
On April 8, 2022, unknown jihadists ambushed a Burkinabe military base near the town of Namissiguima, in Sanmatenga Province, Burkina Faso.
On March 20, 2022, unknown jihadists ambushed Burkinabe soldiers in Natiaboani, Gourma Province, Burkina Faso, killing thirteen soldiers and an unknown number of jihadists.
On October 29, 2022, gunmen from Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin ambushed a convoy of Burkinabé soldiers near the village of Kikideni while they were on their way from Fada N'gourma to Natiaboani, Est Region, Burkina Faso.
The Toeni bus bombing occurred when a school bus drove over an improvised explosive device in Toeni, Burkina Faso, killing fourteen people and injuring nine others on January 4, 2020.
On May 30, 2020, unknown militants ambushed an aid convoy escorted by Burkinabe gendarmes near the town of Barsalogho as it was returning from delivering food to civilians in Sanmatenga Province, Burkina Faso. Thirteen people were killed and forty others were wounded in the attack.
On 25 February 2024, members of the Burkina Faso Armed Forces summarily executed around 223 civilians, including 56 children, in Yatenga Province, northern Burkina Faso. The massacres took place in the villages of Nondin and Soro, and were perpetrated in retaliation for alleged civilian collaboration with jihadist militias. Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the killings as one of the worst Burkinabe army abuses since 2015.