Ankara condemns terrorist attack in Burkina Faso

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Soldiers guard positions near the Naaba Koom military base in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. (Reuters Photo)

Turkey on Jan. 22 condemned a terrorist attack which killed at least 36 civilians in Burkina Faso.

“We are saddened to receive the news that many people lost their lives and were injured in a terrorist attack on a market in a village in the central-northern province of Sanmatenga of Burkina Faso,” Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“We strongly condemn this terrorist attack. We extend our sincere condolences to the brotherly people and Government of Burkina Faso as well as to the families and relatives of those who lost their lives and [we wish] speedy recovery to the injured,” the statement added.

Thirty-six civilians were killed in Burkina Faso on Jan. 20 in what the government called a terrorist attack on a market in Sanmatenga province.

Armed militants forced their way into the market of the village of Alamou and attacked people there before burning the structure to the ground, the government said in a statement on Jan. 21.

The bloodshed is part of a surge in violence in the West African country that has killed hundreds, forced nearly a million from their homes and made much of the north ungovernable over the past two years.

"These repeated attacks on innocent civilians call for real cooperation between the defence and security forces," the government said.

President Roch Marc Kabore called for two days of national mourning in response to the attack. It was not immediately clear who was responsible.

Islamist groups with links to al Qaeda and ISIL have carried out increasingly brazen attacks against civilian and military targets in Burkina Faso in recent months, including an attack on a mining convoy in November that killed nearly 40 people.

The country was once a pocket of relative calm in the Sahel region, but its homegrown insurgency has been amplified by a spillover of jihadist violence and criminality from its chaotic northern neighbor Mali.