On 11 May, Burkina Faso’s main jihadist insurgency, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), attacked and temporarily took control of the northern town of Djibo. Soum province, where Djibo is located, has been a JNIM stronghold since 2015, and while the group has blockaded the town since 2020 and regularly raids it, the scale of the offensive was unprecedented. 

This onslaught was particularly vicious. Sources tell Crisis Group that JNIM killed more than a hundred civilians, soldiers and paramilitary members. The jihadists also abducted dozens of soldiers and civilians, including women. JNIM videos on social media show insurgents looting and destroying Djibo’s army camp, gendarmerie and police headquarters. Members of the jihadist group also set fire to a medical centre, a pharmacy and a market, pillaging scare food stocks.

JNIM occupied Djibo from 5am to 2pm, longer than the previous offensive against the town on 26 November 2023. The Burkinabé authorities dispatched a fighter jet, but it turned back in the face of JNIM fire. For unknown reasons, the army did not use its armed drones. After JNIM decided to withdraw, the authorities used helicopters to deploy dozens of soldiers in the town, which the government has since retaken. But without vehicles, artillery or aircraft, these troops remain vulnerable to JNIM attack as jihadist pressure on Djibo continues. In a video released two days later, Ousmane Dicko, the number-two leader of JNIM’s Burkinabé branch, urged civilians to evacuate the town. 

Since the start of 2025, Burkina Faso has seen daily assaults by JNIM, leading to record losses of life and military equipment. This group, established in 2017 and operating across the central Sahel, has turned Burkina Faso into a prime target, even mobilising reinforcements from Mali. It has also begun to take aim at urban areas, ominously displaying a photo of Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, in the video mentioned above. Fighting for control of cities would represent a major strategic shift for the group, which has mainly targeted villages and small towns until recently. Two days after the Djibo offensive, JNIM attacked and temporarily took control of the town of Diapaga, in the Est region. 

Despite the government’s self-congratulatory rhetoric about its victories over jihadism, this spate of attacks has shown how urgently the military regime, which came to power in 2022, needs to adjust its military-led approach to defeating insurgents. The authorities have yet to react to this assault, but regime-aligned activists acknowledged the battle on social media. In line with government propaganda, they claim the military routed the jihadists.

Worryingly, the armed forces could compound the damage by seeking revenge on civilians living near Djibo. They targeted these communities on suspicion of complicity with the jihadists in the wake of the November 2023 attack. The military has also massacred hundreds of civilians in similar circumstances elsewhere. Yet each new massacre has only fuelled jihadist recruitment.