UN Calls for Release of Women and Girls Abducted in Burkina Faso

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called for the immediate and unconditional release of a group of women and girls who were abducted in Burkina Faso.

Reports say around 50 women were snatched as they gathered fruits and plants in the bush because of a severe food shortage near the town of Arbinda, in a part of the Sahel under miliant control.

The information only emerged days after the attack, when three women escaped. A second group of 15 women and some children from a different village who did not hear about the abduction and who set up foraging the next day were also abducted.

Local authorities said that the army and its civilian auxiliaries, who have joined the Volunteers for the Homeland, have searched the area but, so far, have not found the abductees.

Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been grappling with an insurgency led by militant groups which has killed tens of thousands and displaced around two million people. The country has already seen two coups by disgruntled army officers that have put the military in power.

This story originally appeared on AllAfrica. Image via BBC News.