At least 44 people were killed by Islamic extremists in multiple attacks in northern Burkina Faso, the government said on Saturday.
Militants attacked Kourakou and Tondobi villages in Seno province, Sahel Region Governor Lt Col PF Rodolphe Sorgho said in a statement.
Sorgho called the attacks on Thursday and Friday “despicable and barbaric,” adding that the government was stabilizing the area.
Photo: AP
He called on people to remain calm.
The West African nation has been overrun by jihadist violence linked to al-Qaieda and the Islamic State group that has killed thousands and displaced 2 million people for more than six years.
Fighting has frustrated and divided a once peaceful population, leading to two military coups last year with each junta leader vowing to stem the attacks.
However, the violence is intensifying and spreading as militants blockade villages, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from moving freely.
In February, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for killing more than 70 soldiers, wounding dozens and taking five hostage, in an ambush on a military convoy in the north.
A few weeks before that, militants killed at least 32 people, including soldiers and civilians, in multiple attacks across the country.
The violence has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the country’s history, forcing one in five citizens — about 4.7 million people — to be in need of humanitarian assistance, the UN said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
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