Footage of the deadly Gaskinde attack in northern Burkina Faso has been released by a jihadist group.
On Saturday October 8, the Burkinabe authorities buried the 27 soldiers killed on September 26 in an attack on a supply convoy bound for the town of Djibo, in the northern province of Soum.
On the same day, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) released, via unofficial channels, a footage of the deadly ambush.
On Tuesday 4 October, the Sahelian franchise of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had killed 65 soldiers and 11 auxiliaries, known as Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP).
The 10-minute video, seen by APAnews, appears to have been recorded with a telephone.
It shows armed men on motorbikes. Coming out of the forest, they storm the supply convoy, which suddenly stops.
With their finger on the trigger, the jihadists do not hesitate to shoot at the slightest hint of movement in the vehicles, which they take the time to search one by one.
In last Tuesday’s claim, they claimed to have set fire to 90 of the 119 vehicles that made up the attacked convoy.
To see the damage, the insurgents returned to the scene of the crime on 28 September, according to the same video, which makes no mention of the civilian victims, who, according to the army, numbered 10.
The Union of Drivers of Burkina Faso (UCBF), in a statement, reported the death of 70 of its members in the incident, the second in the same locality in less than a month.
On 5 September, a convoy under military escort on its way to Ouagadougou was blown up by an improvised explosive device (IED), killing 37 civilians.
For several months, localities in the north of Burkina Faso have been under siege by jihadist groups, who intend to increase the pressure on the local population to dissuade them from collaborating with the authorities.
In claiming the Gaskindé attack, the GSIM reminded the population that their salvation lies in the application of Islamic law.
The Gaskindé attack led to the fall of Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who was overthrown on Friday 30 September by Captain Ibrahim Traoré over supposed inadequacies in the fight against the jihadists.
AC/lb/as/APA