Calm Since Burkinabe Junta Takeover Shattered By Soldier Deaths

Burkina Faso has seen an upsurge in violence after a period of relative calm following a military junta takeover on January 24, 2022.

Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was inaugurated as the country's president, weeks after he led a coup that overthrew democratically-elected Roch Marc Christian Kabore. The coup was due to the unhappiness over Kaboré's handling of the bloody militant insurgency.

The relative calm has been shattered with a militant attack that saw at least twelve soldiers killed in Natiaboani in eastern Burkina Faso - the sixth attack of its kind in the country in ten days. 

Natiaboani is a rural community about sixty kilometres south of Fada N'Gourma, the largest town in the eastern region administrative area, that since 2018 has been regularly targeted by armed groups.

Burkina Faso has been struggling with such attacks since 2015, when militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State groups, began mounting cross-border raids from Mali.

According to reports, the violence has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced at least 1.7 million people thus far. In January 2022 alone, 160,000 people fled their homes, a group of international charities has said.

So far, 23 civilians, 25 police personnel, or soldiers have been killed in the last ten days.