DJIBO – When the jihadis started coming to the town in northern Burkina Faso just to buy food — and not kill people — nervous residents didn't know what to think. “We don’t know if it is a pause in fighting or if it will resume.
We are just waiting,” said one resident of Djibo, the arid, remote town regarded as the current epicenter of the country's extremist violence.
While Burkina Faso's government never confirmed negotiating with Islamic extremists, others said the lull in fighting earlier this year was a sign that a cease-fire of sorts had been reached with the militants blamed for thousands of deaths in recent years.