Burkina Faso says 11 police officers killed and 4 missing in Armed Forces News

The security minister said the officers were attacked on a relief mission in the northern town of Yirgou.

The government of Burkina Faso has said that an ambush against a northern police unit affected by the conflict in the country has killed at least 11 agents, and four others are missing.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Security Minister Ousseini Compaore said officers had attacked Yirgou, a town in the wake of the latest violence, while on a rescue mission.

“Search operations with the army have been underway since yesterday,” Compao added.

No one was immediately held accountable for the attack.

Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been fighting to deal with increasingly frequent and deadly attacks by armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

These attacks, which have so far killed at least 1,400 people, began in northern countries near the border with Mali, but have since spread to other regions, particularly the east, and caused a major humanitarian crisis.

In early June, the northern town of Solhan was hit the deadliest attack since the conflict began, at least 138 people have been killed. Local sources said the death toll was 160. It has caused a massive exodus over the massacre 7,000 families looking for safer places.

Since 2019, violence in the country has forced more than 1.2 million people – about 20 out of a population – to flee their homes, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

About 150,000 people have been internally displaced this year, the agency said in early June, with 84% of them women and children.