Over 200 military officers have been feared killed as Al-Qaeda terrorist organization raid military base in Burkina Faso.
The attack was confirmed by an NGO that tracks armed groups’ online activity.
The base, which is located in the northern town of Djibo came under vicious attack on Sunday morning, and a police station and market were also targeted, security sources told the news agency Reuters.
Although there was no official toll, three Djibo residents told Reuters that dozens of soldiers and civilians were killed.
Diaspora Digital Media could not independently verify the claim, but a Burkina Faso military source told Al Jazeera that the armed group was exaggerating the number of casualties.
The United States-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online activity of armed groups, said Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) made the claim in a formal statement.
“The operation comes amid increased JNIM activity in Burkina Faso over the past month inflicting a high number of casualties,” SITE reported.
The organisation previously said Ousmane Dicko, head of JNIM in Burkina Faso, had appeared in a video urging residents of Djibo to leave the town for their own safety.
“One of the major military outposts that was supposed to protect this town of about 200,000 people was razed to the ground, such was the firepower of the armed groups,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Senegal, Dakar.
“This is one of the deadliest attacks in Burkina Faso, and it comes just as Ibrahim Traore [Burkina Faso’s military leader] has been saying that the country has been gaining territory, encouraging people to go back to their homes, but this latest attack proves the opposite,” said Haque.