Prosecutor: Burkina Faso kidnapping involved women, girls, and infants

According to a provincial prosecutor, authorities now think that the raid by alleged jihadis last week in Burkina Faso resulted in the kidnapping of some 60 women, girls, and infants.

According to a statement from Issouf Ouedraogo, the prosecutor for the northern Djibo region, around 50 women may have been taken into custody.

In contrast, he noted, “Police now believe that girls and babies were among those taken,” announcing the start of a fresh investigation.

The Burkinabe Movement for Human Rights announced on Wednesday that it had compiled a “non-exhaustive” list of 61 women who it claimed had been kidnapped; at least 26 of them were under the age of 18.

The group asked the government to do more to protect people living in the affected areas, like making sure they can get humanitarian aid.

In the prosecutor’s statement, it was also said that the people who were taken were caught while they were out looking for food, like wild fruit.

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The town of Arbinda, close to where the women and children were abducted, is frequently targeted by jihadis. The women went hunting for food because the town was getting food less and less often.

The Sahel region’s lieutenant governor, Rodolphe Sorgho, stated on Monday that search teams were working both on the ground and in the air to try to find the group.

Since 2015, jihadists from both the Islamic State and al-Qaida have been conducting raids in Burkina Faso, especially in the northern region of the country.

Their attacks at that time resulted in thousands of fatalities and at least 2 million people fleeing their homes.