Thirteen soldiers have been killed in an ambush by suspected jihadists in Eastern Burkina Faso, the armed forces said Monday.
This surge of violence was the sixth attack of its kind in the landlocked West African nation in under two weeks.
“A military unit carrying out a security operation in the Eastern region was attacked about 20 kilometres (12 miles) East of Natiaboani on Sunday.
“During the fighting, 13 soldiers were unfortunately mortally wounded and eight others injured,” the army said in a statement, adding that several attackers had also been killed.
The rural community of Natiaboani lies 60 kilometres South of Fada N’Gourma, the largest town in the Eastern Region which has been regularly targeted by armed groups since 2018.
Similarly, fifteen youths were kidnapped during an attack on Friday in nearby Nagre, according to the country’s information agency.
Violence resuscitated in Burkina Faso following a period of respite after a military junta coup in January, when disgruntled officers toppled President-elect Roch Marc Christian Kabore, triggered by protests against his poor handling of the bloody insurgency.
About two dozen civilians and a similar number of policemen or soldiers have been killed over the last 10 days.
Burkina Faso has been struggling with jihadist attacks since 2015, when militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group began mounting cross-border raids from Mali.
The violence has reportedly claimed more than 2,000 lives and displaced at least 1.7 million.
