14 killed in armed attack on Burkina Faso gold mine
The attackers of a gold mine in Burkina Faso's Seytenga department reportedly had ordered the miners to leave the site within 72 hours, causing mineworkers and residents of a nearby village to flee.
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The attack took place on Thursday at the small Sago gold deposit in Burkina Faso's Seytenga department
At least 14 people were killed in an attack by unidentified armed men on a gold mine in northern Burkina Faso, local news agency AIB reported on Friday, citing sources.
The report said that the attack took place on Thursday at the small Sago gold deposit in Burkina Faso's Seytenga department, adding that armed men went into the site and opened fire at the miners, killing 14 people. Six other miners survived the attack.
The attackers reportedly had ordered the miners to leave the site within 72 hours. However, before that time elapsed, mineworkers and residents of a nearby village began fleeing.
More than 1.7 million people have been displaced and 2,000 people have died in a militant insurgency that erupted in the impoverished Sahel nation in 2015, according to an AFP tally.
The Sahel region plunged into chaos after Al Qaeda-linked militants seized northern Mali in 2012.
France intervened the following year in an attempt to deter them. But the armed Islamists reorganized and expanded their operations, leaving large areas of the Sahel ungoverned by central governments.
