11 Soldiers Killed, 50 Missing After Jihadist Attack

Eleven soldiers died and around 50 civilians were missing after a suspected jihadist attack in Burkina Faso’s north, the government said late Tuesday.

Violence has raged in the landlocked west African country after Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power in a January coup, ousting Burkina’s elected leader and promising to rein in jihadists.

As in neighbouring countries, insurgents affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have stoked the unrest, even after Damiba earlier this month sacked his defence minister and assumed the role himself.

A security source told AFP the toll could be as high as 60 dead.

The convoy was ambushed Monday near Gaskinde in the province of Soum, part of the Sahel region.

Such convoys, escorted by the army, carry essential goods to towns in the north, particularly Djibo, which are under blockade by jihadists who have dynamited bridges on main roads.

On Sunday an improvised explosive device that targeted another army-escorted resupply convoy in the Sahel wounded four people, security sources said, but the convoy was able to reach its destination on Monday.

In early September an IED strike on a convoy left at least 35 civilians dead, the governor of the Sahel region said at the time.

More than 40 percent of Burkina Faso, a former French colony, is outside government control.