Thousands Flee Surging Violence in Burkina Faso
Voice of America
GENEVA - A series of attacks by unidentified armed groups in Burkina Faso over the past 10 days has left 45 people dead and forced 17,500 people to flee their homes, the U.N. refugee agency says.
The UNHCR reports gunmen went on a rampage in three regions, burning down houses and shooting and killing civilians. It says they also ransacked health centers and damaged homes and shops. UNHCR spokesman Boris Cheshirkov says he does not know what triggered the recent string of attacks. "Clearly, one of the reasons is to cause mayhem and to torment the civilians, which now we see not only in Burkina, but across the Sahel-Chad Basin regions, especially in the last two years. And, in recent months, this has been fueling one of the worst and largest and fastest growing displacement and protection crises in the world," Cheshirkov said.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, right, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, left, leave a podium after marking Independence Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024. Demonstrators with Georgian national and EU flags rally during an opposition protest against a foreign influence bill as they mark their country's Independence Day, in the center of in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 26, 2024.