Burkina Faso authorities have given instructions that appropriate measures be taken to enable the stabilization of northern villages in their home communities.
The action is in response to recent attacks on people in Zimtenga and Bourzanga villages.
On Sept. 28-29, about 20 people were killed in the villages of Zimtenga and Bourzanga municipalities, north of the West African nation, causing a wave of panic that led to a massive movement of people to the city of Kongoussi, about 120 km north of the capital, for refuge.
Thousands of people demonstrated on Wednesday in Kongoussi to “voice their displeasure following the worsening security situation in many villages in central north of the country,” a local representative told Xinhua in a phone call.
“It is a really deplorable situation,” said Simeon Sawadogo, minister of territorial administration. “We urge the populations to keep calm and we tell them there is still hope to ensure their return to home localities.”
Sawadogo says that the displaced would be reintegrated into their home localities at the end of the rainy season so that they could keep the fields and cattle they have.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has suffered a series of attacks that caused over 500 deaths and displaced over 280,000 people.
