According to the Nigerian presidency, gunmen in Burkina Faso attacked the buses carrying Nigerian Muslim pilgrims on their route to Senegal, killing at least 15 of them.
Without elaborating on the attack, the State House announced in a statement that “President Muhammadu Buhari has received the tragic news of the murder.”
A Senegalese religious organization claims that unidentified attackers struck the bus convoy on Wednesday, killing 18 passengers.
The pilgrims traveled through conflict-ridden areas of northern Burkina Faso and central Mali on their journey from Niger and Nigeria to a religious ceremony in Senegal.
“Eighteen passengers lost their lives during these attacks, and most of the survivors were robbed,” the Medina Baye Mosque in Kaolack, the Senegalese town where the victims were headed, said in a statement on Saturday February 4.
In the statement, the Nigerian presidency stated that it was in contact with the Burkinabe authorities and anxiously awaited the results of their investigation into the incident.
Olivia Rouamba, the foreign minister of Burkina Faso, met with the Nigerian ambassador on Monday to discuss the killings.
“For the time being there is no concrete information or element picked up on the field that proves the veracity of these facts,” Rouamba said in a statement after the meeting.
She continued by saying that due to “huge risks” of assaults, the government has severely discouraged travel to the north.
Burkina Faso is battling armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) that spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
Despite costly international efforts to stop them, rebel fighters have encroached on coastal West African states and extended over the tri-border region between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
In the Sahel, repeated attacks on towns, villages, army outposts, and UN peacekeepers have resulted in thousands of fatalities, more than two million displaced residents, and a worsening of food insecurity.
Author-Roberta Appiah
