The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The insurgency has caused thousands of deaths, prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes and dealt crippling blows to economies that are already among the poorest in the world.
On August 13 last year, two assailants opened fire on a restaurant on Ouagadougou’s main avenue, killing 19 people and wounding 21. The attack remains unclaimed.
On January 15 2016, 30 people, including six Canadians and five Europeans, were killed in a jihadist attack on a hotel and restaurant in the city centre.
Responsibility was claimed by a group called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
– Joint Sahel force –
France, the former colonial power in the Sahel region, has deployed 4,000 troops and is supporting a five-country joint force gathering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
On February 21, two members of the French counter-terrorism force were killed by a landmine near Mali’s border with Niger and Burkina Faso. Twelve French troops have died since the campaign, called Operation Barkhane, was launched in August 2014.
The United Nations also has a 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in Mali called MINUSMA, which has taken heavy casualties. Four UN peacekeepers were killed by a mine blast on Wednesday in the centre of the country.
In a separate development on Friday, the specialist US website SITE, which monitors jihadist activity, said kidnappers had released a video of a 75-year-old French hostage, Sophie Petronin, who had been abducted in northern Mali in late 2016.
Petronin, who had been running an association helping Malian orphans, appears in poor health in the brief video.
Her kidnapping, hitherto unclaimed, was carried out by the “Support Group for Islam and Muslims”. In the background, Macron’s voice is heard on a loop, saying “I will protect you”.
