Dozens of women were scouring the bush for food in the Soum province - a hotbed for jihadist activity - when unknown men fired gunshots and closed in.
''We thought we had to take a risk. The lucky ones will be able to escape. I took the risk to escape in the little forest nearby with my child. I arrived back at home at around 10pm.," a 25-year old woman said.
She added "When I think of the others who stayed there, I can't sleep. I don't know what happened to them. Are they going to survive? I ask myself a lot of questions. When I escaped I fell, I walked on thorns and rocks, and that's how I injured my foot.”
She said she managed to escape with her daughter by walking through the bush for a whole day. According to her, others were too scared to run, and many were younger than her daughter.
Authorities said that on Jan 12 and 13, roughly 50 women were kidnapped in what is being seen as a new tactic from insurgents. Some of them have now returned to their home town of Arbinda after escaping.
Fearing for their safety, survivors requested to speak to Reuters on anonymity.
She said she managed to escape with her daughter by walking through the bush for a whole day. According to her, others were too scared to run, and many were younger than her daughter.
While Westerners and locals are occasionally taken, women have not previously been abducted in such numbers.
On Tuesday, protesters took to the streets in Arbinda to ask authorities to send more food. Provisions were later air-dropped.
On Wednesday, the Burkinabe junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, who took power last year to tackle jihadist violence said that there's been a spike in attacks since October with civilians now the targets.
"Militarily, our men are determined to confront them, so they are starting to attack civilians, innocent people, humiliate them, kill them,” he said a meeting at the University of Ouagadougou with students from across the country.
