Armed individuals dynamited a bridge in Naré, a town between Kaya and Dori on one of the main roads linking Ouagadougou to the north of the country, accentuating a blockade already underway on other stretches.
“The Naré bridge has indeed suffered significant damage after being blown up by unidentified armed men,” said a security source.
“Since this morning there has been a long convoy of trucks on both sides of the infrastructure which has been sabotaged, but everything is being done to allow passage,” the source said, adding that “security arrangements have been made to secure the area where there is naturally a concentration of people and their property.
According to a resident of Kaya, “trucks that had left the city for Dori had to turn back while travellers had to join other vehicles on foot on the other side of the bridge to reach Dori.
National road number 3 is the main route linking Ouagadougou to Dori, the capital of the Sahel region. National road number 2 linking Ouahigouya to Dori via Djibo has been under jihadist blockade for several months, as has the Kongoussi-Djibo axis.
Several other communes in the north and east, such as Titao and Madjoari, are under blockade by jihadists.
The army sometimes manages to bring in supply convoys. “This is a cleverly orchestrated plan by the terrorist groups to blockade and isolate the population and frustrate attempts to supply these localities on the one hand, and on the other, to make it difficult to evacuate these areas for possible military operations”, explained political analyst Drissa Traoré.