Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) announced in a statement that it has halted operations in a region of northwest Burkina Faso where two of its employees were murdered by armed assailants on Wednesday.
“On the morning of February 8, armed men opened fire on the crew of a Doctors Without Borders vehicle bearing a four-person medical team while it was traveling between Dédougou and Tougan (in the northwest). While two workers died, the other two were able to flee “said MSF.
The driver and a logistics supervisor, both Burkinabe nationals, perished at the ages of 39 and 34, respectively, according to a statement from MSF.
According to the NGO, whose members are “shocked and outraged by this assassination,” according to MSF President Isabelle Defourny, quoted in the statement, “the two victims, of Burkinabe nationality, had been employed by MSF” since June 2020.
In the context of its medical mission, “this is a deliberate and intentional attack on a clearly identified humanitarian team,” Ms. Defourny said.
According to a local and a security source, this is the second attack carried out by suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso on Wednesday after the one that left six dead in the Center-East: three army deputies and three civilians.
Two military takeovers occurred in Burkina Faso in 2022, and since 2015, the country has been caught in a wave of jihadist violence that started in Mali a few years ago and has since spread throughout other countries.
Two million people have been forced from their homes as a result of the violence, both civilians and soldiers.
