The Burkinabe army did not disclose the identity of the attackers or their affiliation but blamed „terrorists“ for the „major“ attack, which it said could be the deadliest ever against the country’s armed forces.
„In response to this barbaric attack, a large air and ground operation led to the neutralisation of several assailants,“ it added.The impoverished country in the Sahel has been battling a rising wave of violence over the past four years, which began in the north but has since spread to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.
Most attacks in the country are attributed to the Ansarul Islam group, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the JNIM (Group to Support Islam and Muslims), which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.Those groups are believed to be responsible for about 500 deaths since 2015. Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, has been attacked three times.
Burkina Faso troops killed in ‚major terrorist attack‘