Yameogo Aminata, a 57-year-old survivor of extremist violence in Burkina Faso, has recounted the devastating loss of her four sons after armed insurgents stormed her village in 2022 while she was away.
Speaking in a video posted by Channels TV, Aminata described returning home to find her community overrun and her family under attack.
According to her account, the assailants had already killed three of her sons and were attacking the fourth when she arrived.
“They slit the throats of four of my children,” she said while crying.
The men, aged between 25 and 32, were among several villagers targeted during the raid. The attack formed part of the prolonged insurgency that has gripped Burkina Faso for over a decade.
Armed groups linked to Islamist networks have expanded their presence across rural communities, seizing livestock, displacing residents, and carrying out deadly assaults on civilians.
Aminata said she attempted to intervene but was overpowered and beaten before being left injured in nearby bushland.
She sustained serious wounds and later learned that her daughter had gone missing amid the chaos.
“They threw me in the bush. When I arrived I grabbed a long knife but they injured me. The Jihadists came with their wife and children. The children seized the livestocks while their wives burn the houses,” she added.
In 2023, Aminata fled the country, joining thousands forced to escape escalating violence.
She now lives in the overcrowded Nioronigué refugee camp in Ivory Coast, where displaced families struggle with limited resources and uncertain futures.
“I don’t know how to handle my life. I have nothing,” she lamented, explaining that she still keeps the bloodstained clothes from the attack as a painful reminder of what she lost……See More
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