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7 children among 14 killed by roadside bomb in Burkina Faso

Sunday, 05 January 2020 6:03 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 05 January 2020 6:10 PM ]

The file photo shows the site of a bomb blast in Burkina Faso.

Seven children and four women were among the 14 civilians killed when a roadside bomb destroyed their bus in northwestern Burkina Faso, the government said on Sunday, condemning it as a "cowardly and barbaric act".

Nineteen more people were hurt, three of them seriously, in Saturday's blast, the communications ministry said.

Education Minister, Stanislas Ouaro, said the bus was using a road that was supposed to be closed to traffic because of the risk of attacks in the region, which is near the border with Mali.

No has yet claimed responsibility for the bomb but militant violence in Burkina Faso has been blamed on militants linked to both the al-Qaeda and Daesh groups.

The explosion happened in Sourou province, a security source said, telling AFP: "The vehicle hit a homemade bomb on the Toeni-Tougan road."

Children among 14 civilians killed in roadside bombing in Burkina Faso

The Sahel region, especially Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, is fighting insurgency with help from the West.

Meanwhile, the army reported an assault against gendarmes at Inata in the north of the country on Friday, saying "a dozen terrorists" had been killed.

The deaths came after 35 people, most of them women, died in a massacre on December 24 in the northern city of Arbinda and seven Burkinabe troops were killed in a raid on their nearby army base.

Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has seen frequent militant attacks which have left hundreds of people dead since the start of 2015 when extremist violence began to spread across the Sahel region.

In a televised address on Tuesday, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore insisted that "victory" against "terrorism" was assured.

The entire region is fighting against a militant insurgency with help from Western countries, but the bloodshed has continued.

Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad have joined forces to combat terrorism in the fragile region that lies between the Sahara and the Atlantic.

Increasingly deadly extremist attacks in Burkina have killed more than 750 people since 2015, according to an AFP count, and forced 560,000 people from their homes, UN figures show.

(Source: AFP)

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