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Burkina Faso has handed life sentences to 13 individuals for “acts of terrorism,” including involvement in a 2018 attack on the French embassy, while more than 60 others received shorter prison terms, an official statement revealed on Tuesday.
The West African nation has faced nearly a decade of violence — a crisis the junta, which seized power in September 2022, has struggled to contain.
According to the statement from a specialist anti-terror judicial office, the sentences were delivered between January and July.
“Thirteen people were sentenced to life imprisonment” and “63 people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 21 years”, it said.
Two additional defendants received prison sentences of one and three years.
In March 2018, a coordinated assault targeted both the military headquarters and the French embassy in Ouagadougou, with attackers using firearms and a car bomb.
The twin attack left eight people dead and injured dozens more.
“Six defendants were sentenced in these cases, three of whom received life sentences and the other three received prison terms of 21 years each,” prosecutor Lafama Prosper Thiombiano said.
Since 2015, the conflict in Burkina Faso has claimed over 26,000 lives, both military and civilian, according to monitoring group ACLED.
More than half of these deaths occurred in the past three years, despite junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré making the restoration of security a top priority.
