On 3 June at 2:00 a.m. in a Burkina Faso village, 138 people were killed by an armed group. Thought to be linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL, the group injured another 40 people and drove 7,000 families out of their homes to seek shelter. The market was burned and buildings were looted, proving to be the deadliest attack in Burkina Faso since 2015.

What followed was 72 hours of national mourning. Only a few weeks preceding this attack, top military brass visited the region to say it was safe from armed groups. Needless to say, this vote of confidence was not supported by the reality of the situation. Since 2019, 1.2 million people have fled their homes due to violence—150,000 of these since January of this year. It’s estimated that 84% of these displaced people are women and children.

Taken in a wider context, the attack in Slogan has shown many of the same characteristics as other attacks in the region. They normally follow the pattern of attacking civilian militia members, sometimes as revenge killings. This pattern has been seen all throughout the Sahel, including most recently in Niger. In Burkina Faso, for example, these fighters get two weeks of training before fighting insurgents.

The support received from the nation—already strapped for resources—is limited. A factor that can be clearly seen in this Burkinabe case, is that the military close by were never mobilized or arrived on the scene. This example underscores the growing sentiment towards security forces in the region: that they are largely useless. This is difficult to argue with, even as international security aid continues pouring in and much emphasis is placed on the security aspect of things. Since January of this year, already more than 500 people have been killed in the Sahel by armed groups, and this situation is apparently deteriorating.

International actors have been criticized for placing too much emphasis on the security aspect, while ignoring humanitarian and economy-building efforts. Due to the limited, or completely absent social security nets in the region, many armed groups drive religious and ethnic tensions in order to boost recruitment from marginalized communities. While it may be cliche, fighting fire with fire in this situation is evidently not working. The gravity of this situation is further compounded by France’s recent suspension of working with the Malian military, due to the recent coup.

However, as these issues continue to plague Burkina Faso and the Sahel, they’re also beginning to spill over into neighboring countries—namely, the Gulf of Guinea nations, with Ghana being particularly worried. The solution is unknown, but it’s clear that the country needs to be stabilized quickly before it brings down the rest of the region with it.