At least 23 people have died following an attack on a gold mine at Dolmane in Soum Provimce, Burkina Faso, on Friday 4 October 2019. The majority of those killed are reported to have been miners. This attack appears to have been the latest in a series of such assaults carried out by militants claiming links with al Qaeda. Islamic State and other Middle Eastern groups, that have been active in the West African country since 2015, part of a wave of such groups that have sprung up in the western Sahel region.
The location of Soum Province in northern Burkina Faso. Google Maps.
This is the latest in a series of clashes at and around gold mines in
Burkino Faso, which have claimed several lives since September 2017, as
well as numerous injuries, and damage to both mining facilities and
local villages. In January this year a Canadian geologist was kidnapped
and killed, and a number of other foreign workers have been held for
ransom. Like may other African countries, Burkino Faso has granted
concessions to mining
companies in
areas where small-scale artisanal mining has traditionally helped to
supplement the incomes of subsistence farmers. This provides an
important source of revenue for governments, however, little of the
money from such projects tends to reach local communities, which often
leads to ill feeling and attempts to continue mining clandestinely,
which can result in tension or even clashes between mine operators and
local populations.
However the cause of the incident on this occasion does not appear to have been directly aimed at the gold industry itself, but rather to have been part of a widening campaign against the central government in Burkina Faso, in which economic assets and infrastructure are attacked as often as military targets. The two main militant groups in the area, Ansarul Islam and the Macina Liberation Front, both seek the re-establishment of the short-lived state of Macina, which occupied parts of what is now northern Burkina Faso, eastern Mali, and western Niger, between 1818 and 1862. Both groups claim both religious authority and to represent populations that are often ignored by central governments in their respective nations, but neither has, to date, sought to hold any territory or establish any form of alternative administration.
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