10 Burkinabe soldiers killed in attack on military base
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The army in Burkina Faso says no less than 10 soldiers were killed in an attack waged by militants on a military base in the country's north.
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Soldiers from Burkina Faso patrol in the country's Sahel area (Reuters)
At least 10 Burkinabe soldiers were killed and some 50 others were injured as a result of an armed attack that targeted a military base in northern Burkina Faso, the country's armed forces said Monday.
"At least 10 soldiers were killed, and about 50 others were wounded, in an attack conducted by armed men, at dawn on Monday, on an army base in Djibo, north of Burkina Faso," the Burkinabe Armed Forces said.
"Air reinforcements were deployed in the area in order to secure rescue operations and respond to this attack, which resulted in the neutralization of about 18 terrorists," Burkina 24 reported.
Just last Saturday, extremists killed at least three soldiers and eight civilian auxiliaries in an attack in Burkina Faso's volatile north, security sources told AFP.
The latest attacks come after a September 30 coup that ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba -- who himself seized power in January -- and a day after 34-year-old captain Ibrahim Traore was named as his successor as transitional president.
This marks the country's second military coup in eight months, with Damiba only assuming power in January after outsing former President Rock Kabore via a coup of his own in light of growing frustration over the state of the country's security.
Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest nations, has a long history of coups since its independence from France in 1960. The latest is rooted in unrest within army ranks over the extremist insurgency that swept in from neighboring Mali in 2015.
Thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million have been displaced and more than a third of the country lies outside government control.
Traore has vowed to uphold a pledge that Damiba made for a return to a civilian government by July 2024 at the latest. But like Damiba before him, Traore defended the coup on the grounds that the authorities were failing to do enough against the insurgencies.
On October 2, Damiba fled the country.
Protesters rallied in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso around a week after the coup in support of the country's new leader, Ibrahim Traore.
