The new figure would make the assault, in which civilians were shot dead as they dug trenches to defend the remote town of Barsalogho, one of the deadliest single attacks in Africa in recent decades.
Up to 600 people were shot dead in a matter of hours by al Qaeda-linked militants in an August attack on a town in Burkina Faso, according to a French government security assessment that nearly doubles the death toll cited in earlier reports.
accounts on social media. Many of the dead were women and children, and the footage is punctuated by the sound of automatic gunfire and screams of victims as they are shot while apparently trying to play dead.
said it had killed nearly 300 people but claimed it had targeted militia members affiliated with the army, rather than civilians, according to a translation by Site Intelligence Group cited by Reuters.
assault, which hit the airport, among other key buildings, and killed more than 70 people. ‘Defensive trenches’ became mass grave The massacre at Barsalogho came as locals were ordered by the military to dig a vast trench network around the town to protect it from jihadists circulating nearby. The gunmen then attacked the defenses, mid-construction, falsely claiming the civilians were combatants because of their involvement, according to eyewitnesses. One survivor, who asked for anonymity when he spoke to CNN as he still feared for his safety despite having fled the town, said he was one of dozens of men told to dig the trenches by the army that Saturday. He was 4 kilometers from the town at about 11 a.m., in a trench, when he heard the first gunshots.
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