Before the coup.. Burkina Faso and the French army kill 60 militants in the north of the country | Politics news

The French army said that it had killed about 60 militants in northern Burkina Faso during joint operations between its forces and the Burkina Faso army, just before the military seized power last Monday in the African country.

A French army statement, published on Sunday, stated that military operations were carried out between January 15 and January 23 against shelters for armed groups near the Burkina Faso border with Mali, which resulted in the killing of 60 militants.

According to a statement by the French army, the first operation was carried out on January 16 by a helicopter raid in the area west of the city of Gorum, north-east of Burkina Faso, while the second operation took place on the 17th and 18th of the same month by a raid carried out by drones north of the city of Gorum. Gorom.

As for the third operation, it was carried out on January 23, by combat aircraft and drones, in the eastern region of Dibo.

France – the former colonial power of the region – is highly active in some West Africa against armed groups, as part of the military “Barkhane” operation, which includes 5,100 soldiers.

material losses

A statement by the General Staff of the French armies added that during the operations against the militants, 20 motorcycles and several armed pickup trucks were destroyed. The French General Staff said that the aim of these operations “was to search for terrorists in their areas of refuge,” before adding that “the results are very good.”

The French army stated that, after these military operations, Burkina Faso forces will be “able to return to the transit and asylum areas for jihadist groups, which have not been conducting operations there for a long time.”

These military strikes came before the military coup in Burkina Faso on January 24; The military has placed President Roch Marc Christian Kabore under house arrest, and arrested other officials.

Like Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has entered into a cycle of violence for years attributed to armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, in which more than two thousand were killed and at least 1.5 million people were forced to flee their homes.