Burkina jails 13 people for life over terror acts

ABIDJAN - Burkina Faso has sentenced 13 people to life imprisonment for "acts of terrorism", including a 2018 attack against the French embassy, and given lesser jail terms to more than 60 others, according to an official statement seen Tuesday.

The west African nation has been battling jihadist violence for around a decade that the junta which came to power in a coup in September 2022 has struggled to contain.

The prison sentences were handed down at hearings between January and July, a specialist anti-terror judicial office said in the statement.

"Thirteen people were sentenced to life imprisonment" and "63 people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 21 years", it said.

Two others were handed jail terms of one and three years.

In a twin attack in March 2018, attackers struck the military headquarters and the French embassy in the capital Ouagadougou using guns and a car bomb.

Eight people were killed and scores were wounded.

"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.

The conflict in Burkina has killed more than 26,000 people since 2015, including soldiers and civilians, according to monitoring group ACLED.

More than half of the deaths have occurred during the last three years, despite junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore making restoring security a priority.