About 50 women have been abducted by suspected Jihadists in Burkina Faso.
The women were said to have gone together to pick fruits as there was nothing left for them to eat amid raging insurgency.
According to local sources, roughly 40 women were seized around 12km (seven miles) south-east of Arbinda on Thursday and about 20 others were abducted on Friday to the north of the town.
Several managed to escape and return to their villages to raise the alarm, they said.
“The women got together to go and gather leaves and wild fruits in the bush because there is nothing left to eat,” said one resident, adding that they had left with their carts on Thursday.
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“On Thursday evening, when they didn’t come back, we thought that their carts had had a problem,” another resident said. “But three survivors came back to tell us what happened.”
The same person said about 20 women, who had not known about the first abduction, were subsequently taken the next day, 8km north of Arbinda.
“In both groups, some women managed to escape and returned to the village on foot,” the resident added. “We believe that the kidnappers took them to their bases.”
Local officials confirmed the abductions, stating that the army and its civilian auxiliaries have carried out unsuccessful sweeps of the area.
