The preliminary death toll was 34 volunteers and six soldiers in an attack carried out by unknown men, authorities say.
Unidentified assailants killed 40 people and injured 33 others in an attack on the army and volunteer forces in northern Burkina Faso, the government said in a statement.
A detachment of six soldiers and 34 civilian volunteers “was the target of an attack by unidentified gunmen on Saturday… around 4 p.m.,” near the village of Aorema, the Ouahigouya governorate said in a statement on Sunday.
The region is not far from the border with Mali, an area overrun by fighters linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) who have carried out repeated attacks for years.
The preliminary death toll was 34 Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP) aides and six soldiers, the statement said, adding that another 33 people were injured and in “stable condition” at the university hospital of the regional capital Ouahigouya.
A security source confirmed the death toll to AFP news agency, saying that “several dozen terrorists had been neutralized”, meaning killed, in a “counter-strike” launched after the attack.
Another security source said the detachment that was attacked was deployed to maintain security at Ouahigouya airport.
“General Mobilization”
Burkina Faso’s military government had declared a “general mobilization” on Thursday to give the state “all necessary resources” to fight a series of bloody attacks blamed on fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the ISIL group .
Last week, 44 civilians were killed by “armed terrorist groups” in two villages in the northeast, near the Niger border.
It was one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since Captain Ibrahim Traore came to power last September, after 51 soldiers were killed near Deou in the far north in February.
The government had already announced a plan for September 2022 to recruit an additional 5,000 soldiers for battles that have gripped one of the world’s poorest countries since 2015.
The violence has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people and displaced two million people from their homes, according to NGOs.