Burkina Faso: Dozens of soldiers killed in jihadi attack as French forces are on way out

Last week’s jihadi attack on a Burkina Faso army unit, which has reportedly claimed lives of at least 51 soldiers, came while some 400 French special forces soldiers were leaving the country.

The death toll from the attack in the country’s north has risen to 51, Burkinabe military officials said Monday, Feb. 20, after 43 new bodies were found. A military unit was ambushed in the Sahel region’s Oudalan province, and reinforcements have been sent to the area. An unspecified number of wounded have been taken to hospital.

The West African nation has been wracked for seven years by violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, which has killed thousands, displaced nearly 2 million people and caused a humanitarian crisis. Successive governments’ failure to effectively address the problem led to two coups last year, with each military leader vowing to stem attacks and secure the country, albeit with little success.

French special forces soldiers are now in the process of leaving Burkina Faso, one month after the junta government ordered their withdrawal. French departure adds to growing concerns that Islamist extremists are capitalizing on the political disarray and using it to expand their reach. In a separate but related development, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced it has decided to maintain sanctions against the military leadership in Mali and Guinea and added a travel ban against Burkina Faso’s rulers.

The decision, which comes a week after Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso sought reintegration into the regional bloc, is seen as a response to the ECOWAS’ growing fears over the wider implications of a band of countries under military rule stretching across West Africa’s Sahel region.