Burkina Faso - Profile
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa known for its multicultural coexistence. Years of under investment, development and governance deficit has left behind a weak infrastructure and vulnerabilities for insecurity. Following full independence in 1960 from France, the country endured 4 coups from 1966 to 1987. The popular leader Thomas Sankara ruled the country from 1982 until he was killed in 1987 in a coup d’etat. 63% of the country’s population practices Islam, 22% practice Christianity and the rest practice Traditional African religion.
Following the first terrorist attack in the capital Ouagadougou on the Splendid Hotel in 2016, the country has continued to suffer a perilous extremist violence in the North of the country. In June 2021, gunmen killed at least 100 people in Solhan village in northern Burkina Faso near the Niger border. This is the deadliest terrorist attack on the country.