Security and local sources claimed on Saturday that suspected terrorists killed 22 civilians in two attacks in Burkina Faso’s north and west.
Sixteen civilians from volunteer auxiliaries backing up the army were killed on Friday in the deeply troubled north, a security source said, adding that some of the attackers had also suffered “losses”.
Two more civilians were killed in the attack in a village near Boulsa, the main town in the Namentenga region, according to a resident, who added that the assailants also set fire to homes, motorcycles, and the local market.
According to a second security source, four civilians from another volunteer auxiliary organisation were killed in an attack in the western town of Fo on Friday.
Fo has been repeatedly targeted by jihadists in the past weeks and most of the inhabitants have fled.
Burkina Faso has been struggling with a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
Anger within the military at failures to roll back the insurgency sparked two coups last year, culminating in the ascent of a young army captain, Ibrahim Traore, in September.
More than 10,000 civilians, troops and police have died in the violence, according to an NGO count, while at least two million people have been displaced.