| Samorogouan attack | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Burkina Faso | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Theophile Bonko | Boubacar Sawadogo | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 3 killed 1 missing | None | ||||||
| 2 civilians killed, 1 injured | |||||||
On October 9, 2015, jihadists from the Khalid ibn Walid katiba of Ansar Dine attacked an Burkinabe gendarmerie outpost in Samorogouan Department, Burkina Faso. The attack was one of the first deadly attacks during the jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso.
In 2012, Tuaregs in northern Mali rebelled against the Malian government, and two factions arose out of the various rebel groups. Jihadist groups such as Ansar Dine took over large swathes of Mali, and were eventually forced into an insurgency by Operation Barkhane. Following the instability after the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising and the new government's crackdown on Islamist groups to prevent a spillover of the war, jihadist groups from Mali began expanding into Burkina Faso. [1]
Residents of Samorogouan had reported being robbed by men in turbans, and also stated that they had called the local gendarmerie brigade, but there was no response. [2]
The attack took place at a Territorial Gendarmerie Brigade outpost in the town of Samorogouan, Kénédougou Province, Burkina Faso, near the Malian border. The day before the attack, armed jihadists had invaded the town and attacked public buildings, sparking a firefight where seven of the jihadists' motorcycles were captured and they were forced to retreat. That night, jihadists attacked the brigade's base at around 4am with more weapons, killing two soldiers. The head of Samorogouan department stated that he had heard gunshots around that time intensifying closer to the base, before dwindling and being heard in a forest close by. [2] During the jihadists' escape from the base, one more soldier was killed and one was kidnapped. [1]
Burkinabe reinforcements did not arrive at the scene until 6am, at which point the jihadists had fled and burned vehicles that had come from Orodara the evening prior to reinforce the base. [2] A civilian also had his throat slit by the attackers, and two civilians were injured. [1] [2] The two men injured were rushed to a hospital, where one died. The civilian that died, Abdoulaye Sawadogo, was an Islamist, and invited the jihadists to stay at his home in Samorogouan to plan the attack. His family members denied that Sawadogo was involved and accused the police of lying as Sawadogo was one of only five Sunni Muslims in the village, although never prayed at the mosque because he didn't believe their interpretation. [2]
Later reports revealed that Boubacar Sawadogo, the head of the Burkinabe branch of Ansar Dine's Khalid ibn Walid katiba attacked the outpost with his men. The attack was facilitated by Katiba du Sud's second-in-command Yacouba Traore. [3]
Several high-profile Burkinabe military leaders visited Samorogouan after the attack. General Pingrenoma Zagre visited the town and declared measures would be taken to prevent another attack. [1] [2] No attackers were killed during the clashes, and Burkinabe authorities stated that thirteen arrests of suspects were made in Samorogouan, Orodara, and Bobo-Dioulasso afterwards. [2]
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 Ouahigouya ambush took place near Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso, between February 7 and 8, 2022. French forces launched an airstrike on Ansar ul Islam militants responsible for the November Inata attack that killed dozens of Burkinabe police officers.
The battle of Boulikessi took place between September 30 and October 1, 2019. Jihadists from JNIM and Ansarul Islam attacked Malian bases in Boulikessi and Mondoro, killing between 40 and 85 Malian soldiers, making it the deadliest attack for the Malian army since the Second Battle of Kidal in 2014.
Operation Tiésaba-Bourgou was a joint Franco-Malian operation against Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and Ansarul Islam near the Malian, Burkinabe, and Nigerien borders.
Boureima Dicko, nom de guerre Ibrahim Malam Dicko, was a Burkinabe jihadist and the founder of Ansarul Islam.
On March 5, 2017, jihadists from Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin attacked Malian forces in Boulikessi. The attack was the first by JNIM since its inception that month.
On 13 October 2016, jihadists from Ansar Dine ambushed Malian soldiers near Goumakoura, Mali.
On January 15, 2016, unknown militants ambushed Malian forces near Wanna, in Goundam Cercle, Mali.
Between December 24–25, 2015, Ansar Dine militants attacked National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) positions in Talahandak, Mali. Ansar Dine captured the MNLA outpost, and then ambushed CMA reinforcements.
On October 28, 2015, a battle broke out in Tiébanda, Mali, between Katiba Macina militants and Malian forces.
On August 7, 2015, jihadists from Al-Mourabitoun and Katiba Macina attacked the Byblos Hotel in Sévaré, Mali. The attack was one of the largest attacks against civilians in Mopti Region during the Mali War, and led to the deaths of thirteen people, including five civilians.
On July 16, 2015, the Malian army raided a jihadist base in the Sama Forest, in southern Mali's Sikasso Region. The raid is one of the few confrontations between jihadists and the Malian army in southern Mali, and marked the end of the Khalid ibn Walid katiba and jihadist expansion in southern Mali.
The raid on Ténenkou took place on January 16, 2015, between Malian forces and jihadists of the Ansar Dine-affiliated Katiba Macina.
On January 5, 2015, militants from Katiba Macina and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) overran Malian defenses and briefly captured the city of Nampalari, Mali.
On October 23, 2013, Katiba Salahadin militants attacked Chadian peacekeepers in the city of Tessalit, sparking a battle between the militants and Chadian and French forces. The attack was the first attack by jihadists targeting MINUSMA peacekeepers during the Mali War.
Souleymane Keïta was a Senegalese jihadist and the founder of the short-lived Khalid ibn al-Walid Battalion of Katiba Macina.
On November 8, 2016 Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) fighters attacked Nigerien forces in Bani-Bangou, Tillabéri Region, Niger.
Between May 31 and June 1, 2017, clashes broke out between Nigerien forces and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) near Abala, Niger. These clashes expanded to the Nigerien-Malian border near Bani-Bangou, and on June 1 the ISGS militants were confronted by French, Malian, and Tuareg militias when the militants fled towards Ménaka Region, Mali.
The JNIM-ISGS war is an ongoing armed conflict between Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State – Sahil Province (ISGS), the Sahelian branches of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State respectively, and, to some extent, Islamic State – Algeria Province (ISAP). Since ISGS' formation in October 2016 and the creation of the JNIM coalition in 2017, the two groups had been described as the Sahelien exception or Sahelien anomaly: despite the global war between al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates since the latter's splinter from the former in 2014, both ISGS and JNIM have ignored each other and in rare cases worked together against Malian, Nigerien, Burkinabe, French, and international governments and non-Islamist militias until 2020.
