The attack was halted due to French and Burkinabe air intervention, although 35 civilians were killed in the jihadists' massacre.

The town of Arbinda in northern Burkina Faso was the site of various violent attacks between Mossi militias called Koglweogos, backed by the Burkinabe government, and Fulani civilians alleged to be sympathetic or involved with jihadist groups active in the area.

[7] A second attack on Arbinda on November 20 was repelled by Burkinabe forces, killing at least eighteen jihadists and only one gendarme.

[9][8] The battle was interrupted by a Burkinabe A-29 Super Tucano and two French Mirage 2000s launching airstrikes, repelling the attack.

Both Puxton and Nasr stated that the 80 number was part of a series of exaggerated, unprovable death tolls from operations against jihadists.

President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré condemned the barbarity of the attack, and praised the gendarmes.