Report: Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Burkina Faso Attack Amid Security Crisis

An Al Qaeda* branch operating in the Sahel region has claimed responsibility for the September 26 attack in Burkina Faso, in which almost a dozen soldiers taking supplies to a town in the north died, according to Reuters, citing the SITE Intelligence Group’s Tuesday statement.

The Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen branch reportedly stated that the attack "caused significant economic losses to the enemy and ‘led to a shakeup’ in the Burkinabe Army ranks, culminating in the military coup". Burkina Faso suffered a coup carried out by Captain Ibrahim Traore on September 30, as a result of which the previous government - headed by Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba - was removed.

According to an International Crisis Group report from 2017, terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso severely intensified since 2015, and the north of the country, which neighbors Mali and Niger, suffers the most.

The deadliest attack of recent years happened on June 4-5, 2021, when over 160 people were killed in the Solhan village in northeastern Burkina Faso. According to the Crisis24 company's analysis, the Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimeen and Ansar-ul Islam groups are the largest armed groups in the country.

The security problem is so significant that Burkina Faso's authorities are not able to control around 40 percent of the country's territory, a mediator from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) stated in June this year.

The country's security problems were one of the reasons that led to the military coup as officers leading the effort explained that their decision to remove Damiba from power was caused, among other things, by a failure to deal with an armed uprising by Islamist militants.

The coup leaders also expressed their determination to deal with the security situation and, in particular, change their international security partners, effectively ditching cooperation with the French. Moreover, prior to the latest coup, the country saw multiple mass protests against the government's handling of security issues, during which some of the participants carried Russian flags.

French troops were deployed in the Sahel in 2014 as part of Operation Barkhane, which looked to fight terrorists in response to the tensions growing in the Sahel after NATO forces removed Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011. Experts believe that Gaddafi was able to contain the contradictions between the regional forces, which prevented the spread of terrorism.

However, even after years of operating in the region, France failed to tackle the crisis, which caused multiple anti-French protests.

In recent months, mass protests against the French military mission have arisen again in many countries of Western Africa due to the fact that the French troops' presence has not improved the security situation.