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Burkina Faso: Many women killed in jihadist attack | Burkina Faso: Many women killed in jihadist attack |
(about 5 hours later) | |
Suspected Islamist militants have killed 35 civilians, 31 of them women, in an attack on a military base and a town in Burkina Faso, officials say. | |
They say seven soldiers and 80 militants were also killed as the army repelled Tuesday's attack in Arbinda, northern Soum province. | |
President Roch Marc Christian Kabore declared two days of national mourning in the landlocked West African country. | President Roch Marc Christian Kabore declared two days of national mourning in the landlocked West African country. |
No group has so far said it was behind the attack. | |
The attack of "rare intensity" lasted several hours, Burkina Faso's military said. | |
"In their flight, the terrorists cowardly murdered 35 civilians, including 31 women, and injured six people," government spokesman Remis Dandjinou was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. | |
Earlier this month, at least 14 people were killed after gunmen opened fire inside a church in the east of the country. Jihadist attacks have increased in Burkina Faso since 2015. | |
Once relatively stable, Burkina Faso has descended into serious unrest, due to a home-grown insurgency and the spillover from jihadist militancy in Mali. Hundreds of people have been killed this year and a million displaced. | |
The conflict spread across the border from neighbouring Mali where Islamist militants took over the north of the country in 2012 before French troops pushed them out. | The conflict spread across the border from neighbouring Mali where Islamist militants took over the north of the country in 2012 before French troops pushed them out. |