Four people, including two Spaniards and an Irishman, were reportedly killed after an armed ambush in Burkina Faso, near a road leading to the vast Pama Forest Reserve. Local intelligence sources report this to Reuters. The convoy was in action as part of an anti-poaching patrol.
According to the newspaper La Vanguardia, up to now the local authorities and the Spanish Foreign Ministry have not commented on the incident. The jihadist matrix of the attack is feared.
Meanwhile, the Madrid government had confirmed the disappearance of two of his fellow citizens during an anti-poaching patrol in eastern Burkina Faso, in which Western educators and journalists were present. The Spanish authorities are “in permanent contact with those of Burkina” in the hope that the two Spaniards will be found as soon as possible.
According to local sources, an Irishman and a citizen of Burkina were also present during the attack which would have resulted in three injuries. The two Spaniards and the Irishman are said to be journalists who worked for an environmental NGO. The attackers were aboard two pick-ups and about twenty motorcycles and allegedly stole weapons, drones and the journalists’ jeeps.
In recent years there have been many kidnappings in Burkina Faso, where jihadist attacks have multiplied since 2015. If previously concentrated in the north of the country, on the border with Mali, the violence of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in the greater Sahara have then spread to the capital and other regions of the country. .