14 troopers killed by jihadists in Africa’s Burkina Faso

At least 14 troopers had been killed and 7 injured by extremists on the Yirgou navy barracks in Burkina Faso’s Sanmatenga province on Monday, the federal government stated.

The troopers had been focused at 5 am by numerous closely armed males and confirmed “great combativeness,” Minister of Defense Aime Barthelemy Simpore stated in an announcement.The authorities instantly launched an aerial and floor offensive, he stated.Locals close to the assault stated they had been shocked, given there had been an elevated navy presence within the space not too long ago.’TOTALLY DEVASTATED’“We are totally devastated because of what happened,” Abdoulaye Pafadnam, the mayor of close by Barsalogho city, advised the Associated Press by cellphone.“Many defence and security forces were sent to cover the area, and it was very encouraging to see that. We did not think that such an attack would happen in our zone….But when 12 soldiers get killed and equipment is taken away, it creates a big fear,’ he said.LINKS TO AL-QAEDA, ISLAMIC STATEViolence linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State is increasing across the once peaceful West African country.As of Saturday there were six explosives detonated within seven days killing eight people and wounding several others, according to a tweet by Menastream, a conflict monitoring consultancy.While attacks had previously been concentrated in the north and east, they’re expanding across the country. At least three of the explosives last week occurred in the west and southwest including the first deadly explosive in the Cascades region, according to Menastream.RESPONSE TO ARMY AIRSTRIKESConflict analysts say the intensifying of attacks are due to some jihadist groups trying to consolidate gains before the rainy season ends, when violence typically increases and that the spike in explosives is a response to more airstrikes by the army, said Heni Nsaibia a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.“One could assume that the explosives are both a response of choice to the airstrikes, and a way to deter movements by ground forces, in order to force them to become more static.” he stated.ALSO READ: South Africa adopts extra bold emissions goal earlier than local weather summitALSO READ: US plans to maintain Al-Qaeda in examine in Afghanistan with air strikes