Abidjan, Ivory Coast – Three people have been sentenced to life imprisonment for a twin attack in Burkina Faso in 2018 that killed eight people and wounded 85 others, a judicial source told AFP Wednesday.
Attackers struck the military headquarters and the French embassy in the capital Ouagadougou using guns and a car bomb.
Eight suspects were put before a specialised judicial unit on suppressing terrorism in the high court in Ouagadougou, which delivered its verdict on Tuesday.
They were charged with “terrorist acts”, “conspiracy to commit murder” and “complicity in attempted murder”.
Three of the accused were sentenced to life in prison, the high court public prosecutor’s department told AFP.
The defendants acknowledged their role in the attacks and their membership of a jihadist group.
Two other suspects, who financed the group’s activities, and a third who worked as a tailor to help the group’s members, were sentenced to prison terms of between 10 and 21 years.
The remaining two defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence, the public prosecutor’s office said.
Eight soldiers were killed and 85 people were wounded in the attack on March 2, 2018.
The Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), linked to Al-Qaeda and led by the Malian jihadist Iyad Ag Ghaly, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Burkina Faso has been led by a military junta since September 2022, with Captain Ibrahim Traore at the helm.
Like fellow junta-ruled neighbours Mali and Niger, the country has been battling a surge of attacks by jihadist armed groups.
Nearly two million have been forced from their homes by the conflict, which has killed more than 26,000 people since 2015, including soldiers and civilians, according to monitoring group ACLED.
© Agence France-Presse
