Spanish priest, customs officers die in Burkina attack

OUAGADOUGOU: A Spanish priest and four customs officers were killed during an attack by alleged Jihadists in Burkina Faso, local sources said.

"The Spanish Salesian Antonio Cesar Fernandez was assassinated during a Jihadist attack between Togo and Burkina Faso," the Salesians of Don Bosco order said in a statement posted on Friday on Twitter.

A Burkina security source added that a mobile customs unit "that had set up a control point in Nohao near the border with Togo was the target of a terrorist attack on Friday around 17h00" local time and GMT.

On Saturday the toll stood at four customs officers killed along with the 72-year-old Spanish priest.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed on Saturday on Twitter "all my affection for the family and colleagues of missionary Antonio Cesar Fernandez and all the victims of the terror attack in Burkina Faso".

A local security source said the attack was carried out by "a group of around 20 gunmen who then fled into a wooded zone".