Burkina Faso: search underway for 50 women abducted by jihadists in restive Sahel region

Security forces are searching for at least 50 women that were abducted by suspected Islamist extremists in Burkina Faso’s insurgency-hit northern Sahel region, a regional governor said Monday, January 16.

The women were kidnapped on January 12-13 while in the countryside gathering wild fruit near the town of Arbinda in Soum province, Lt. Col. P.F. Rodolphe Sorgho, the governor of Sahel, said in a statement. Several women managed to escape and return to their villages to raise the alarm. “As soon as their disappearance was announced, efforts were launched to find all of these innocent victims safe and sound,” Sorgho added. “All means available are being used, in the air and on the ground, to find these women,” a security source told the media. “Aircraft are flying over the area to detect any suspect movement.”

Burkina Faso has been overrun by jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, whose militants killed thousands, displacing nearly 2 million people in the West African nation. The failure of successive governments to stop the fighting has caused widespread discontent and triggered two military coups in 2022 to seize power.

A total of 116 security incidents were recorded during the second week of this month only, according to an internal report for aid groups, which represents more than 60% increase compared to the last week of December 2022.