The latest violence comes as the country’s military leaders ramp up efforts to put down a rebellion that has killed thousands.
About 60 civilians were killed in a village in northern Burkina Faso, the local prosecutor said, announcing an investigation into the attack.
Citing information from police in the city of Ouahigouya, prosecutor Lamine Kabore said the attack took place Friday in the village of Karma near the Mali border.
According to the statement, the perpetrators wore the uniforms of the Burkinabe armed forces, but gave no further details about the attack.
“The injured have been evacuated and are currently being cared for in our health facilities,” Kabore told AFP news agency, adding that the perpetrators had “taken various items”.
Armed groups are believed to control some 40 percent of Burkina Faso in the regional unrest that began in Mali in 2012 when hardline groups hijacked a Tuareg separatist uprising. Burkina Faso’s military rulers this month announced a “general mobilization” as part of a plan to reclaim territory lost to armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).
In Karma, survivors told AFP that more than 100 people on motorcycles and pick-up trucks raided the village and dozens of men and youths were killed by men dressed in military uniforms.
They estimate the death toll at “around 80”.
Last week, 34 defense volunteers and six soldiers were killed in an attack by an “unidentified” group near the village of Aorema, about 40 km from Karma.
Burkina Faso’s military rulers had just days earlier announced their “general mobilization” to give the state “all necessary resources” to fight the armed insurgency.
The decree states that anyone over the age of 18 who is physically fit and is not in the armed forces will be “called to enlist according to the needs expressed by the appropriate authorities”.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict and about two million people have been displaced from their homes, according to aid agencies.
Anger within the military over the rising toll led to two coups in 2022, the most recent of which was in September when Captain Ibrahim Traore emerged as president.
Traore says he is committed to a plan by the previous military government to hold elections for a civilian government by 2024.