At least 50 women were abducted between Thursday, January 12 and Friday, January 13 in the northern Burkinabe department of Arbinda by suspected terrorists.
According to local sources told the newspaper ‘L’Observateur Paalga’, 41 women were abducted on Thursday morning when they went to the bush, four kilometers from the city, in search of leaves and edible fruits.
A day later, a second group of fifteen women – who were not informed of the incident the day before – met the same fate under the same circumstances.
Of the total number of women victims of the kidnapping attempt, only five managed to escape from the hands of the alleged terrorists, three from the first group and two from the second, according to the newspaper.
The Burkina Faso Army has launched a search to find the whereabouts of the women, but so far has not found the location of the hostages.
The department of Arbinda, in the province of Soum, has been under terrorist blockade for several weeks, with repeated clashes between the forces of the Burkina Faso Executive and these armed groups.
The attacks, the work of both Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates in the region, have also contributed to an increase in inter-community violence and have led to the flourishing of self-defense groups, to which the Burkinabe government has recruited ‘volunteers’ to help in the fight against terrorism.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
