On January 12 and 13, gunmen reportedly kidnapped 50 women in the Soum area of northern Burkina Faso, according to the official report.
The women were abducted by armed men while collecting wild fruit west of the town of Aribinda, some 15 kilometers (9.32 miles) from the village of Liki.
Lieutenant-Colonel Rodolphe Sorgho, the governor of the Sahel area, stated in a statement on Monday that efforts to find all of these innocent victims safely and unharmed “were begun as soon as their absence was revealed.”
A security source told the AFP news agency that “all available methods are being deployed, in the air and on the ground, to find these women.”
“Aircraft are circling the region to look for any suspicious activity.”
Local authorities claim that attempts to sweep the area by the army and its civilian auxiliary units have been fruitless.
Volker Turk, the head of the UN Human Rights Commission, demanded the release of the women in a statement on Monday.
“I demand the prompt, effective, impartial, and independent conduct of an investigation by the national authorities to identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” Turk said. “I call for the immediate and unconditional release of all the abducted women.
Burkina Faso, one of the most impoverished nations in the world, has been battling to curb violent activities by armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), which moved from neighboring Mali in 2015 despite expensive international military efforts to do so.
Two million people have been displaced, forced to live in temporary camps, and thousands of civilians and security personnel have died.
The most recent kidnapping, according to a senior commander at military headquarters, is “the first genuinely large kidnapping since the security problem began.”
To prevent a tragedy or a repeat, everything must be done.
Armed gang fighters have surrounded towns around the nation, obstructing the free flow of people and commerce. According to rights organizations, the community of Arbinda has been under an armed group blockade for years, rendering women more susceptible to violence if they attempt to flee.
Ousmane Diallo, a researcher at Amnesty International’s regional office for West and Central Africa, described the situation in Burkina Faso as “a very worrying and dangerous development that exposes the vulnerability of women in places under siege.”
“All parties to the conflict must uphold the rights of civilians, including their right to an income. In these besieged areas, the government needs to pay greater attention to and protect residents, but it also needs to take “a specialized approach to the protection of women and girls,” he said.
Idrissa Badini, a representative of civil society, warned about the predicament in Arbinda in November 2022, declaring: “The population, which has spent up its reserves, is on the verge of a humanitarian tragedy.”
According to the UN, approximately a million people reside in the north and east of Burkina Faso that are under blockade.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) representative and former president of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, claimed in June that just 60% of the nation is under the jurisdiction of the capital, Ouagadougou.
Two coups were carried out in 2022 by disgruntled army officers as a protest at the failure to end the conflict, with each military leader pledging to prioritize security.
According to French diplomats, as part of its efforts to resolve the crisis, Burkina Faso has hired the Wagner Group, a private Russian mercenary organization. The same thing was allegedly claimed in December by Nana Akufo-Addo, the president of neighboring Ghana.
In the meantime, France, a former colonial power and ally of Burkina Faso, released a statement denouncing the kidnapping and demanding the women’s quick release.
