Burkina Faso on Tuesday said that more than 7,000 people had fled the country’s volatile north following the bloodiest massacre in a six-year-old jihadist insurgency.
“Steps have already been taken to give [displaced people] a minimum level of comfort, lodgings and food,” Burkinabe Prime Minister Christophe Dabire said, promising on a visit to the area that the attack “will not go unpunished.”
Dabire’s advisers told reporters that 7,600 people had fled to Sebba, the capital of Yagha Province, about 15km from the scene of the attack in Solhan village.
Photo: AFP
In Geneva, Switzerland, UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Babar Baloch said that more than 3,300 people had fled, including more than 2,000 children and 500 women, after gunmen stormed into Solhan on Saturday last week and killed civilians.
At least 138 men, women and children were “executed,” and nearly 40 were seriously wounded, Baloch said.
Local sources have put the death toll at least 160, marking the deadliest attack since violence erupted in the west African country in 2015.
Burkinabe Minister of Communications Ousseni Tamboura said that the village “has been completely emptied of people.”
One local elected official said that most of those who left Solhan had already been fleeing violence, including in the Mansila district to the west.
Attackers “burned almost everything, houses, the market, the school and the dispensary,” Tamboura said.
Displaced people “arrived with few or no belongings,” Baloch said, adding that most “were generously welcomed by local families who are sharing what little they have.”
The new arrivals urgently need water, sanitation, shelter and medical care, he said.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
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