Terrorist attack claims lives of 41 in Burkina Faso

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The capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, declared two days of mourning as of Sunday after a terrorist attack took the lives of 41 people in the north of the country.

"The search mission in the area of an ambush by armed terrorist groups... has established a toll of 41 bodies. The president decrees national mourning of 48 hours," a government statement issued Saturday evening read.

The victims included members of an official self-defense force known as the Volunteers for the Defense of the Motherland (VDP), the government said, which Ouagadougou set up to support its armed forces

Members receive 14 days of training, after which they are deployed on patrols and surveillance missions, equipped with light arms.

The statement also announced that among the dead was VDP Burkina Faso leader Ladji Yoro, adding that the identification of the victims was still underway.

Local media reported that the ambush targeted a convoy of traders escorted by VDP near Ouahigouya, a town close to the border with Mali.

The attack was Burkina Faso's most lethal since mid-November, when a terrorist attack killed 57 people, 53 of which were VDP volunteers.

Burkina Faso, like almost the whole region, has been affected by terrorist violence since 2015, which has been sparked by Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Just less than a day ago, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in Beni, eastern Congo, killing at least six, in the latest attack in an area where Congolese and Ugandan forces have launched a campaign against militants. 

Government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya explained that the explosion in the city of Beni was caused by an attack carried out by a suicide bomber, and so far, no party has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The fighting has devastatingly led to the death of more than 2,000 people and the displacement of 1.4 million.