OUAGADOUGOU: Eleven soldiers were wounded and 29 militants neutralized in a weekend attack on security forces in Burkina Faso’s troubled northwest, the army said on Sunday.
Military and police units came under attack on Saturday in the area of Gomboro “by armed individuals,” the army said.
“The fighting caused injuries to 11 soldiers who were treated. Their response and counter-offensive allowed the neutralization of 29 terrorists and the recovery of a large amount of combat materiel including weapons, vehicles and communication equipment,” the statement said.
On December 23, an ambush by suspected extremists targeting civilians and the VDP, an official self-defense force, in the northern You region left 41 people dead, including Ladji Yoro, considered a leader of the VDP.
That attack was the deadliest since the bloodshed in Inata in the country’s north in mid-November, which claimed 57 lives including 53 police officers.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been facing regular and deadly attacks, particularly in the northern and eastern regions, close to Mali and Niger, countries also battling armed extremist groups.
These attacks, often coupled with ambushes and attributed to extremist movements affiliated with the Daesh group and Al-Qaeda, have killed more than 2,000 people and forced more than 1.4 million to flee their homes.