Burkina Faso: Dialogue begins but attacks continue

As reported by Africa News on 26 April 2022, the military regime which took power in January 2022 has announced the creation of "local dialogue committees" with armed groups which have been destabilizing Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso through violence since at least 2015. It is hoped that ways can be found for young fighters to lay down their weapons and return to their localities to resume activities such as livestock rearing. However, no dialogue is intended for groups affiliated to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group (IS).‚  Northern Burkina Faso has continued to be the scene of many attacks by the latter. A selection of attacks in April is listed below:

• 1 April 2022: 20 people were killed in a night attack on a gold mine in Kougdiguin, (Namentenga province) by armed militants on motorcycles, often a signature of Boko Haram (Defense Post, 3 April 2022). A further 14 and 11 people were killed in two previous goldmine attacks in the region in March 2022 (CGTN Africa, 13 March 2022).
• 4 April 2022: A group of 10 armed men kidnapped an 83-year-old American nun and vandalised church property in Yalgo, roughly 100 km from Kaya, the capital of the northern region of Ouagadougou. She had been serving in the Catholic congregation "˜Marianites of the Holy Cross" since 2014 (Vatican news, 7 April 2022).
• 8 April 2022: 16 soldiers and paramilitary fighters were killed and 20 were wounded during an attack by armed militants on an army base in Sanmatenga province (Al-Jazeera, 8 April 2022).
• 24 April 2022: At least 5 soldiers and 5 civilians were killed in an attack on an army detachment in Gaskinde, Soum province (CGTN Africa, 24 April 2022).

World Watch Research analyst Yonas Dembele comments: "Burkina Faso has become a hotbed for violent Islamic militant groups. The continual high levels of armed violence was partly responsible for the coup in January 2022 (Al-Jazeera, 16 February 2022), but the interim government of Burkina Faso is misjudging the motivation of young fighters by assuming that only social or economic reasons are to account for young men joining jihadist groups. It cannot be denied that Islamic ideology is a major factor and there have been no measures to counter the radical ideology that fuels jihadism; this implies that radical Islamic fighters will continue to launch attacks despite government offers of dialogue. The persistence of these attacks by jihadists means that the practice of Christianity in northern Burkina Faso in particular is extremely risky as Christians are a prime target. The constant attacks also disrupt the livelihood and communities of all civilians making it difficult to freely practice and engage in ordinary religious activities, but especially evangelism and missionary work."