Reporting by Press Association and Reuters
An Irish conservation worker is among a group of foreigners who were abducted and have been reportedly killed in Burkina Faso.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it had made contact with the citizen's family on Tuesday.
The Irish national, two Spanish citizens and a Burkinabe soldier went missing after being attacked by gunmen during an anti-poaching patrol, the Burkinabe government said.
A special military wildlife unit was ambushed on Monday morning while travelling with the foreigners, 15 kilometres from their base at the eastern town of Natiaboni.
The situation is complex and officials are working with relevant actors on the ground
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: “The Department of Foreign Affairs continues to closely follow unfolding developments in Burkina Faso.
“The situation is complex and officials are working with relevant actors on the ground, including Spanish and EU colleagues, to ensure that the full facts are established and followed up on as a matter of urgency.
“The Department has been in contact with the family of the Irish citizen and is providing all possible consular support.
“As with all consular cases, it would be not appropriate to comment on specific details of the case at this time.”
Se confirma la peor de las noticias. Todo el cariño para los familiares y allegados de David Beriain y Roberto Fraile, asesinados en Burkina Faso. Y nuestro reconocimiento a quienes, como ellos, realizan a diario un periodismo valiente y esencial desde las zonas de conflicto.
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 27, 2021
Spain's prime minister has confirmed that two Spanish journalists were killed after the armed ambush on the anti-poaching patrol.
Pedro Sanchez said two journalists filming a documentary there had been killed. "The worst of news is confirmed," he said on Twitter.
The Burkinabe government has not yet confirmed the deaths, saying photos of bodies circulating on social networks had not been formally identified as being theirs.
However, three senior Burkina Faso security sources said the Irish national had also died.
The three senior Burkina Faso security sources with direct knowledge of the matter requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack on a road leading to the vast forested reserve of Pama. The government said it had not identified the assailants, whom it described as "terrorists".
Soldiers report
Two soldiers wounded in the attack and taken to a military hospital in the capital, Ouagadougou, said they were attacked by jihadists who outnumbered their 15-person patrol.
One soldier was shot in the leg and the other in his arm, causing it to be amputated. When the jihadists attacked, the soldiers tried to form a protective shield around the foreigners, but once the shooting stopped they realised they had disappeared, one said.
“We were discouraged. It’s like you leave your house with 10 people, you go to work and then you come back with eight people. What do you say to those two people’s families?” said one of the soldiers.
The foreigners – two of them were journalists and one a trainer – had been travelling with the rangers for about a week, said the soldiers. The rangers were conducting their first mission in Arly National Park after finishing a six-month anti-poaching training programme, he said.
Deepening crisis
Abundant vegetation and the poor condition of the backcountry roads in the area would have made it easy for the assailants to take the convoy by surprise, said Burkinabe police superintendent and security expert Rachid Palenfo.
"It happened where the road is deteriorated, it means that you can't drive fast," he told Reuters.
The unit that was ambushed was part of a new joint army, police and forestry unit that had just gone through six months of training and was starting operations in conservation areas around Pama on the border with Benin and Togo.
Burkina Faso, like much of West Africa's Sahel region, faces a deepening security crisis as groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State carry out attacks on the army and civilians, despite help from French and UN forces.
Insurgents are believed to be holding a number of foreign hostages in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
The worsening violence has led to one of the world's most acute humanitarian crises, UN agencies warned on Tuesday. It said 29 million Sahelians — an all-time high — were in need of aid and protection, five million more than last year.
