ISLAMABAD: An attack on a military detachment in eastern Burkina Faso has left 33 soldiers dead and 12 others wounded, the army said in a statement.
The besieged soldiers killed at least 40 “terrorists” before reinforcements arrived, the army stated, after the attack on a military post in Ougarou in the Est region on Thursday in the latest outburst of violence in the West African country.
Fighting has been ongoing between Burkina Faso’s armed forces and rebels since 2015.
The conflict has so far claimed over 10,000 lives, according to aid groups, with some two million forced to flee their homes.
Anger within the military over the ongoing violence led to two coups in 2022, the most recent in September, when Captain Ibrahim Traore became president.
With one-third of the country not under the government’s control, he has promised to retake lost ground, but there has been a rise in attacks on security forces and civilians since the start of the year, inflicting hundreds of deaths.
Traore says is committed to fulfil a plan by the preceding military administration to hold elections for a civilian government by 2024.
