Gunmen attack military base in northern Burkina region

OUAGADOUGOU: One soldier was wounded and another five are missing after gunmen attacked a military base in northern Burkina Faso, security sources said Saturday, in a region prone to jihadist violence.

A former French colony that ranks among the world's poorest countries, Burkina Faso has been struggling with an Islamist militant revolt since 2015. The attack happened at a military base in Tongomael early Friday morning, a security source told AFP. Details of the wounded and the missing were only provisional, the source said.

Tongomael is near Djibo, the regional capital of Soum province, which borders Mali to the north. Earlier this week, security officials reported a deadly attack on Kongoussi village Tuesday in the neighbouring province of Bam, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) to the south. Suspected jihadist insurgents killed three civilians.

Bam province has suffered a string of deadly assaults this year. The country's army has been increasingly targetted by jihadists. Earlier this month, an attack on a military base in northern Burkina Faso killed 24 in an unprecedented blow to the army in its campaign against jihadists.

The country's insurgency, which came from neighbouring Mali, began in the north but has since spread to the east. Since 2015, more than 500 people have died in attacks that have become increasingly violent especially in the north and the east, according to a toll compiled by AFP. Burkina's capital Ouagadougou has been attacked three times, including a March 2018 jihadist assault on the military headquarters in the city which left eight dead.