According to official documents seen by AFP on Sunday, Burkina Faso has imposed a curfew in the North and some areas of the Centre East region to help the country’s fight against jihadists.
Over two million people have been displaced from their homes as a result of the protracted insurgency in the impoverished Sahel region, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians, police, and soldiers.
A note from Kouilga Albert Zongo, secretary general of the governorate for the North, stated that a curfew had been established from 22:00 to 5:00 across the entire regional territory from Friday, March 3, to Friday, March 31.
The use of two and four-wheeled vehicles as well as overnight human movement is prohibited by the curfews.
The army in the area bordering Mali, where the insurgency first spread in 2015, will benefit from the curfew, according to Zongo.
An administrative communique from the high commission in the region near Ghana and Togo, as well as the central-northern Bam region, also established a curfew for March over Koulpelogo province.
An overnight curfew implemented in the East region of 2019 was extended for three months, to May 21, in the middle of February.
Jihadist attacks have become more frequent this year, killing dozens of citizens and security personnel every week.
In an ambush that took place on February 17 in the far north and for which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility, the army reported a preliminary death toll of 51.
Since army captain Ibrahim Traore overthrew the government in a coup late in September, it was the deadliest attack to take place in Burkina.
A little more than 40% of the country’s territory is ungoverned.
The failure to put an end to the insurgency angered the Burkinabe military, which resulted in two coups last year.
