Suspected jihadists killed 47 people, including 30 civilians, in an attack on a convoy in northern Burkina Faso, the government said on Wednesday.
The assault left 14 people dead and three militia volunteers 25 kilometers from Gorgadji, the communications ministry said.
Gorgadji is located in the famous “three borders” area where Burkina Faso meets Mali and Niger, a hotbed of jihadist violence that rages throughout the Sahel region.
The soldiers and militiamen had “kept civilians on their way to Arbinda”, another town in northern Burkina Faso.
In a subsequent shootout, security forces killed 58 “terrorists” and put the rest to flight, according to the government.
Wednesday was the third attack in the past two weeks against Burkinabe soldiers in which 10 or more people have died, including one on August 4 with a death toll of 30, including 11 civilians.
Burkina Faso, a poor country in the arid sub-Saharan Sahel region, has been facing increasingly frequent and deadly attacks since 2015 by jihadist groups affiliated with the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda.
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These attacks as well as intercommunal violence have left more than 1,400 dead and forced 1.3 million people to flee their homes, according to official estimates.
(AFP)
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