16 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
At least 40 combatants of Burkina Faso government forces, including military and volunteers, have been killed and 33 others have been injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen in northern Burkina Faso, the scene of an anti-jihadist military campaign.
These are six soldiers and 34 members of the so-called Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP) who were ambushed on Saturday about 15 kilometers northeast of the town of Ouahigouya, according to an interim report published this Sunday by the governorate of the North Region.
The injured have been stabilized, adds the Governorate in the statement collected by the news portal Le Faso.
The previous day, the military and volunteers had participated in “fierce combats against armed terrorist groups” in that area, according to the Army in another statement, collected by Burkina24.
The Burkinabe authorities, now led by the military coup leader Ibrahim Traoré, had decreed this past Thursday a general mobilization to face the increase in jihadist attacks in the country, the work of both the Al Qaeda affiliate and the Islamic State.
This mobilization was ordered after the increase in anti-terrorist operations in recent weeks, especially in the north and east of the country.
