OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - A woman who survived the massacre of hundreds of villagers in central Burkina Faso described the horror of searching through bodies to find her brothers, in an interview following the attack claimed by an Al Qaeda-linked group earlier this week.
"We went out with carts to collect the bodies of my older brothers," said the woman, 38, who escaped with her toddler. "We spent a long time going through bodies piled up under trees."
The woman gave the interview to an aid worker in Kaya, a nearby town where many survivors have since fled. The aid worker provided the woman's testimony in an audio recording to Reuters. The woman agreed for her story to be released to the media on condition that her name and voice be withheld for her safety.
The attack outside the town of Barsalogho was one of the deadliest in nearly a decade of Islamist violence in the West African country. A group of victims' relatives said at least 400 people were killed when jihadists opened fire on civilians digging defensive trenches on the orders of the military.
The massacre took place on Saturday morning, the woman said in the interview. The army had forced every man in the town out to dig trenches to protect it from attackers, while women and younger children were sent to cut long grass and trees to improve visibility for the soldiers stationed there.
The militants, or bushmen as she described them, arrived at about 10 a.m. and began killing, firing on soldiers and civilians alike. They didn't stop until later in the day when drones arrived overheard. She said it took three days for the survivors, mostly women and children, to collect the bodies.
Al Qaeda affiliate Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin said it attacked soldiers and militia members excavating trenches and killed nearly 300, describing all the victims as fighters, not civilians.
Several videos apparently filmed by the militants and released on social media showed more than 100 bodies piled in a trench, most of them in civilian clothing. Reuters confirmed the location of the videos from the position of the trench and other features in the landscape that matched satellite imagery.
The woman interviewed said civilians, soldiers and volunteer army auxiliaries known as VDPs were among those attacked. One family she knew lost 30 members. Another family of 13 members was completely wiped out, she said.
Burkina Faso's ruling junta has not said how many people were killed, but said civilians were among the victims.
'BLOOD EVERYWHERE'
The eyewitness said survivors took the bodies to the mayor’s office and helped each other transport the dead to the site where men were digging graves. Local custom prohibits women from burying the dead, but she still asked to help because there were so many graves to dig.
When the men refused, she gave her cart to neighbours still collecting bodies and waited for her turn to bury her three brothers.
"I stayed at the town hall watching people carrying bodies everywhere. It was horrible," she said.
Her oldest brother was buried first, after she insisted he be given his own grave. Neighbours dug graves for the other two the following day.
"I am no longer sure that I am normal. You know why? Because I saw horrible things, dead bodies and blood everywhere. I have not been sleeping well since I was displaced here," the woman said.
A civil society source in Kaya said that the military had surrounded the town where many survivors had fled and were preventing them from leaving or talking about what happened.
The bloodshed highlights the danger of the authorities' growing reliance on civilians as they struggle to combat the jihadist groups that have destabilised swathes of West Africa's Sahel region since an insurgency took root in Mali in 2012.
A civilian group called Collectif Justice pour Barsalogho has criticised the government for its silence on the attack, which had been condemned worldwide including by the United Nations and European Union.
It said a government delegation that reached the area was more preoccupied with the army than the civilian survivors. It blamed the army for sending citizens to their deaths by forcing them to dig trenches that became mass graves.
"We regret that ministers can come all the way to Barsalogho and turn back without seeing the tears or hearing the cries of grief of this community," the group said in a statement on Wednesday, "every single family is in mourning. The youth has been decimated."
Frustrations over worsening violence led to two coups in Burkina Faso in 2022, but the new authorities have failed to stem the bloodshed.
Over 6,500 civilians have been killed since the start of 2020, the non-governmental organisation Armed Conflict Location and Event Data said in July.