SHAFAQNA- Armed men killed sixteen people and wounded others in an attack on a Mosque in Burkina Faso’s volatile north during prayers on Friday evening.
“Since this morning, people have started to flee the area,” one resident from the nearby town of Gorom-Gorom told. He said there was a “climate of panic despite military reinforcements” that were deployed after the deadly attack.
The identities of the gunmen were not yet clear.
In recent years, Burkina Faso has seen a surge in violence linked to armed groups, including al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The groups, who crossed into Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali, igniting ethnic and religious tensions, especially in northern regions.
Almost 500,000 people have fled their homes because of the violence, according to the United Nations refugee agency, which has warned of a humanitarian crisis affecting 1.5 million people.
Almost 3,000 schools have closed, and the impact on an overwhelmingly rural economy is escalating, disrupting trade and markets. Last week, 20 people were killed in an attack by gunmen on a gold-mining site in the north.
On Saturday, a crowd of about 1,000 people marched in the capital Ouagadougou “to denounce terrorism and the presence of foreign military bases in Africa”.
“Terrorism has now become an ideal pretext for installing foreign military bases in our country,” Gabin Korbeogo, one of co-organisers of the march told AFP.
“The French, American, Canadian, German and other armies have set foot in our sub-region, saying they want to fight terrorism. But despite this massive presence… the terrorist groups… are growing stronger”, Aljazeera reported.