They were killed by children — some apparently as young as 12 — and men who had arrived on dozens of motorbikes and were egged on in their murderous spree by women who knew the village well, according to witnesses. The local militia had left. The army came to the rescue for a matter of hours in the morning but then left before dusk, letting the attackers return the following night to burn the village down and most likely steal what gold it had.
In the end, somewhere between 170 and 200 people died, according to estimates by a local police source and other officials, and it still remains unclear who the killers were.
In the lawless and remote communities of the Sahel, jihadists increasingly hold sway. Yet one likely culprit in this incident, al Qaeda’s local affiliate JNIM, condemned the attack’s brutality. And the other main suspect, ISIS, chose to blame it on al Qaeda, according to an ISIS-affiliated newspaper.
Dozens of interviews by CNN with survivors, local witnesses and Burkina Faso officials paint the most complete and disturbing narrative yet of a rampage perpetrated over 48 hours, partially by children, that the US-backed and trained Burkina Faso military was powerless to stop.
Yet few officials or witnesses agree on a coherent and consistent motive for the attack. Were the child attackers sent for Solhan’s gold, as currency for their Islamist masters? Was it a punishment killing ordered by jihadists against villagers loyal to the government?
The story of Solhan is a notable mark in the patina of brutality spreading across the Sahel. The intervention — and now ongoing drawdown — of the French military, the arrival of European Union forces, and the Pentagon’s sustained support mean billions have been spent in attempts to bolster the local security forces. Yet violence has spiraled instead, particularly in Burkina Faso over recent years.
The crisis in some of sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest states presents an imminent threat to Europe’s security, and by…
Source : cnn
