Dozens Killed in Islamist Militant Attack in Burkina Faso

Suspected Islamist militants killed dozens of people in three separate attacks in Burkina Faso, including a raid on a cattle market in the east of the country, marking a fresh surge in jihadist violence in one weekend.

Gunmen on motorbikes fired into the market in Kompiembiga on Saturday, killing at least 25 people, while seven paramilitary police and five civilians died when gunmen attacked a humanitarian convoy returning from the town of Foube, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) north of the capital, Ouagadougou, according to a government statement Sunday.

The West African nation has struggled to quash an Islamist insurgency that’s forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. The violence has led in turn to deadly inter-communal clashes.

On Friday, at least 15 people were killed in a raid near the border with Mali, from which a range of jihadist groups have expanded their operations since 2012. The attacks come days after French special forces known as Barkhane deployed a jet fighter and drones in the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, killing “several terrorists” and seizing weapons, according to a French defense ministry statement.-Bloomberg