Around 50 women were kidnapped by Islamist militants while searching for food in Burkina Faso’s northern province of Soum on Jan. 12 and 13, an area known for jihadist activity, according to the government.
This mass kidnapping marks a new development in the insurgency that spread to Burkina Faso from neighboring Mali in 2015, despite efforts by international military forces to contain it. While Westerners and locals have been kidnapped occasionally, this is the first time women have been kidnapped in such numbers.
This type of mass kidnapping has occurred in Nigeria by the Boko Haram insurgency. The women were taken as they were collecting wild fruit outside the village of Liki, approximately 15 km from the town of Aribinda, and another location within the same district.
“Searching has started with the aim of finding all these innocent victims safe and sound,” the government said in a statement.
Burkina Faso is one of several countries in West Africa facing a violent insurgency with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State that has taken control over large areas of territory over the past decade.
