Ouagadougou, 16 January 2023 (GNP): At least 50 women have been abducted by the suspected militants in the town of Arbinda in northern Burkina Faso, as told by the officials to media. Several abducted women managed to escape from them and successfully reached their town, Arbinda.
Since 2015 this landlocked Muslim country in West Africa has been wrought by al-Qaida and Islamic State-led insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people in this poorest country of the world and has displaced more than two million people from their homes.
These women went to collect wild fruits and left in groups for their food, as they were faced with severe food scarcity due to this insurgency and infighting between the government and extremists.
These abductions in Burkina Faso were carried out on two consecutive days, Thursday and Friday.
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The second group of women, not knowing about the kidnapping of the first one, were also abducted by these militants as they went for their food collection in the nearby jungle. This is what was told by the residents of Arbinda, the town where these abductions have been done, and also confirmed by the local officials.
They said that military forces and civilian volunteers are searching the area for the recovery of these abductees.
Arbinda is in north-western Africa, commonly known as the Sahel region, an Arabic word for coast or shore. This region has been blockaded by the militants, resulting in food scarcity for people living there.
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These militants more and often carried out raids and ambushes on the local people and areas to hunt down their opponents and terrorize them for their subjugation or at least not support the government forces that fight with them.
Food scarcity and its availability have become a matter of life and death for the Burkinabe due to this conflict. In many parts of the country, crop cultivation has been stopped as either side militants or government forces damage them in raids and counter-insurgency operations.
This is the reason why the Burkinabe are heavily dependent on outside food aid.
Last year, two military coups were carried by the military top brasses to show their anger over the failure in quelling this insurgency.