The Burkina Faso army announced today, Friday, the elimination of “two influential terrorist leaders”, one in the north of the country and the other in the northwest, during operations last week that targeted “high-value targets”.
The Commander of National Operations, General Yves Didier Bamouni, said during a press conference that on May 26 Tidiane Djibril Déco was “neutralized” during air raids in the outskirts of Tongomael (north).
He stressed that this terrorist leader is responsible for several attacks against the civilian population in the Salgadji region (north) from which he hails, and planned and led many ambushes against military units.
The military official added that Dicko “was neutralized while he was busy planning an attack on a convoy in Djibo.”
AFP had learned from security sources, earlier this week, of the killing of this terrorist leader who led a battalion of a group linked to the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.
“The second, Sangari Dembo…was one of the leaders who planned and carried out an attack on the Nona Detention and Correction Center on the night of May 7-8. He also staged an ambush against a military unit in Barani on May 9,” Bamouni explained.
The commander of national operations in Burkina Faso stressed that “he was very influential in Boucles de Mohon (northwest on the border with Mali) and was neutralized during the dismantling of a terrorist base on May 28.”
General Yves Didier Bamouni praised the “important and secret intelligence work” that allowed “the arrest of fighters, informants and logistical elements for terrorist groups”, and considered that “the leadership of some terrorist groups has been eliminated.”
In early May, the Burkina Faso army published pictures of about fifty terrorists. Several ground and air attacks between May 15 and 28 killed at least 80 fighters of terrorist groups in the provinces of Soum (north) and Kosi (northwest), according to the army.
Burkina Faso, especially its northern and eastern regions, has witnessed repeated terrorist attacks since 2015 by al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist movements, which have left more than two thousand dead and 1.8 million displaced.
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