11 gendarmerie officers killed in Burkina Faso terrorist attack

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – At least 11 gendarmerie officers were killed in an attack on a security post in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso, the army said on Friday.

“A particularly large number of attackers” targeted the Seytenga Territorial Gendarmerie Brigade in the province of Seno on Thursday night, according to a military statement.

Several terrorists were also neutralized by the security personnel, the army said.

Earlier on Thursday, five soldiers and a civilian were killed in two separate attacks in Burkina Faso, a country battling an insurgency that has spread from neighboring Mali over the past decade.

The first attack on an army post in the western Kossi province also left around a dozen people injured.

The other was a raid on the Karma industrial gold mine in the country’s north, in which a soldier and a civilian were killed and nine soldiers wounded.

At least 44 suspected terrorists were neutralized in the two incidents, according to the army.