[FILE] Soldiers from Burkina Faso patrol on the road of Gorgadji in sahel area, Burkina Faso . REUTERS/Luc Gnago
At least ten “terrorists” were killed and three soldiers injured on Thursday in an ambush on a patrol in northern Burkina Faso, security forces said.
“A mixed patrol made up of soldiers and gendarmes.. were ambushed around the village of Gaigota,” one of the sources said.
The rest of the armed group was “routed” in the ambush. The three injured soldiers were evacuated for medical treatment, the source said.
Weapons, ammunition and motorcycles were seized, another security source said, adding that “search operations are continuing in the area”.
Following, an attack on Saturday in which gunmen stormed northern Solhan village and killed 132 civilians, according to the government, over 7,000 villagers had fled the area.
Sweeping operations were continuing as well as the securing of the entire northern sector, the source said.
Those responsible for Saturday’s attack, the bloodiest massacre in a six-year-old jihadist insurgency, “would not go unpunished”, Prime Minister Christophe Dabire said on a visit to the area.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been facing mounting violence from jihadist organisations, including the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS).
But the GSIM on Tuesday said it “completely denies any involvement” in the Solhan killings, which it condemned as “atrocious”.
Jihadist attacks first started in the north near the Mali border in 2015, but have since spread to other regions, particularly in the east.
At least 1,400 people have been killed and more than a million displaced.