The Nov. 14 attack near the northern Burkinabe town of Inata, which also killed four civilians in addition to the 49 gendarmes, was the worst loss suffered by state security forces in recent years. read moreRegister now for FREE unlimited access to reuters.com RegisterHundreds of mourners watched in silence as flat-bed trucks delivered around 30 coffins, each wrapped in a Burkinabe flag, to a cemetery in the capital Ouagadougou for a mass funeral. Reports that the gendarmes had run out of food before the attack, and had been forced to scavenge and hunt near the outpost, have stoked additional resentment. He and others also objected to the manner of the burials, which involved some mourners helping security forces lower the caskets into the graves that were then piled with earth. read moreRegister now for FREE unlimited access to reuters.com RegisterReporting by Vincent Bado and Thiam Ndiaga Writing by Alessandra Prentice Editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 25, 2021 01:16 UTC