Burkina Faso jihadist insurgency: Some Ghanaians join the fight against the military

Three men tell the BBC they have crossed the border multiple times to fight the military.

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"We are always with the dead. In some battles, I've seen 40, 50 or 100 dead people," one of the men told the BBC.

The three, all in their late thirties or early forties, said they had fought in Burkina Faso multiple times since 2018. They crossed the porous 550km-long (340-mile) border between the two countries, without being detected by the security forces.

They denied being primarily motivated by religion or being trained by the jihadists, saying they went to fight to defend civilian communities with whom they had strong family and ethnic ties.

"My elder brother, his wife and children were all killed by the [Burkinabe] army. It pains me a lot. The military came to their community in the forest. They killed all of them, a whole household, including 29 people," one of the men said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpdx3wj9dp2o

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