Two die in new Burkina Faso (Credit: Google)
- An unidentified gunman killed a soldier and a civilian in an attack on a gold mine.
- More than 2,000 people died and some 1.8 million people have fled their homes.
- Karma mine produced 88,000 ounces of gold — worth $25 million.
An unidentified gunman killed a soldier and a civilian in an attack on a gold mine in northern Burkina Faso on Thursday, according to a security source.
A security official described the pre-dawn attack at the Karma mine near Ouahigouya as involving “several dozen armed men, most likely terrorists” raiding the facility’s security base.
Five people were also injured, two of them seriously, before the attack was repulsed, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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A mineworker reached by AFP said the attack lasted nearly an hour and employees were then evacuated to Ouahigouya.
Read more: Rebels kill 11 in northern Burkina Faso
The Karma mine was sold in March by Canada’s Endeavour Mining to a Burkina consortium, Nere Mining, for $25 million. Last year, it produced 88,000 ounces of gold.
The landlocked Sahel country has been in the grip of a nearly seven-year-old insurgency launched by jihadists from neighboring Mali.
More than 2,000 people have died and some 1.8 million people have fled their homes.
Attacks have been concentrated in the north and east of the country, badly affecting the economy, especially the mining industry.
On Sunday, a soldier was wounded when a supply convoy for a gold mine in Bongou, in eastern Burkina, came under attack. The following day, the mine itself came under shellfire.
In April, Russian miner Nordgold said it was halting activities at its Taparko mine in the north — the country’s biggest privately-owned mine.
Burkina Faso has been ruled by the military since January when colonels enraged by the failure to quell the insurgency deposed the elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
After a brief respite, jihadist attacks resumed, killing more than 200 civilians and military personnel in the last three months.
Read more: Five soldiers, 30 ‘terrorists’ killed in Burkina Faso clash