In an attack that may rank as one of the deadliest in Africa in recent years, up to 600 civilians were slaughtered in August in broad daylight by Al Qaeda-linked militants in Burkina Faso, according to a French government security report and confirmed to The New York Sun by a representative of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

This assessment triples the original death toll estimate put out by the United Nations from the August massacre in the remote town of Barsalogho. Armed fighters from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, an Al Qaeda affiliate based in Mali, opened fire as they stormed the town on motorcycles. Chilling videos shared on the terrorist group’s social media captured the moments of terror — civilians, including women and children, shot by automatic gunfire at close range as they lay helpless in the dirt, trying to play dead.