At least eight soldiers were killed in an ambush by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso on Friday, the Burkinabe army said on Monday.
After this ambush against a “military unit between Deou and Oursi (Oudalan province, Sahel)” on Friday, “the units sent as reinforcements (…) have so far carried out combing operations,” according to a statement from the army staff.
“At this stage of the operations, the results allow for the following preliminary assessment: 8 bodies of soldiers found on the battlefield, 3 wounded evacuated and treated” and “several soldiers still wanted,” he adds.
The army confirms that “about sixty terrorists were killed during the air counter-offensive aimed at the enemy columns trying to exfiltrate towards the northern border” towards Mali. “Seven armed vehicles and dozens of motorcycles were also destroyed.”
“All means are currently being used to find the soldiers who are still missing,” the army says, without naming the number. It “invites” “not to disseminate assessments that are not confirmed by observations on the ground”.
Deadly raids attributed to jihadists have multiplied in recent weeks in Burkina.
More than a hundred people – civilians and soldiers – have died in the past two years, according to an AFP tally.
Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught in a spiral of jihadist violence since 2015 that emerged a few years earlier in Mali and Niger and is spreading across their borders.
According to NGOs, the violence left more than 10,000 dead – civilians and soldiers – and about two million displaced.