Geneva, Switzerland.- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, demanded the “immediate and unconditional” release of some fifty women kidnapped by suspected jihadists on Thursday and Friday in northern Burkina Faso.
“I call for the immediate and unconditional release of all the kidnapped women, and for the national authorities to promptly carry out an effective, impartial and independent investigation to identify those responsible and hold them to account,” the Austrian said in a statement.
Türk declared himself “alarmed” by these abductions, which, according to him, could be “the first attack of this type that deliberately targets women in Burkina Faso.”
According to local sources, the victims were kidnapped on Thursday and Friday by suspected jihadists in Arbinda, a town in the north of the country where violent acts often take place.
According to the testimony of several inhabitants and local officials who asked to remain anonymous, at first a group of about forty women was kidnapped, about ten kilometers southeast of Arbinda, and the next day, the assailants kidnapped to another group, of about twenty, to the north of that municipality. Some of them were able to escape and reported what had happened.
