At least two others were wounded in the attack in Soum province
OUAGADOUGOU, Jan 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Security officials in Burkina Faso say five soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an explosive device in the north of the country.
At least two others were wounded in the attack in Soum province.
The incident is being blamed on suspected jihadists who have intensified activity across the Sahel in recent months.
“A homemade explosive was used in an attack Friday morning against a military unit,” on patrol in a wildlife reserve, leaving five dead, a security source said.
“Reinforcements were sent to the zone to clear the area while the wounded were evacuated.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb, but violence in the region has been claimed by and blamed on militants linked to both Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
One of the poorest countries in the world, former French colony Burkina Faso lies in the heart of Africa’s sprawling, impoverished Sahel, on the southern rim of the Sahara desert.
Burkina Faso’s badly equipped, poorly trained and underfunded security forces have been unable to stem the violence, which intensified throughout 2019.
The complex insurgency in the Sahel began in 2012, when a Tuareg separatist uprising was exploited by Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda who took key cities in Mali’s desert north.
Former colonial power France began its current military intervention in the Sahel the following year, with Operation Serval driving the jihadists from the towns.
But the militant groups have morphed into more nimble formations operating in rural areas, and the insurgency has gradually spread to central and southern regions of Mali and across the borders into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
According to the U.N, around 4,000 people were killed in jihadist attacks in the three Sahel countries last year. — NNN-AGENCIES