AfriNewsHub

  At least 100 villagers and soldiers were killed in central Burkina Faso during a weekend attack on a village by al-Qaida-linked jihadis. Based on video evidence available; regional specialists have described the assault as one of the deadliest this year in the conflict-battered West African nation. Villagers in the Barsalogho commune which is 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the capital city were helping security forces dig up trenches to protect security outposts and villages on Saturday when fighters with the al-Qaida-linked JNIM group invaded the area and opened fire on them, said Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday, saying in a statement that it gained "total control over a militia position" in Barsalogho in Kaya, a strategic town where security forces have used to fight off jihadis that have over the years tried to close in on the capital, Ouagadougou.