Fifty-three people were killed in an attack on a gendarmerie post in northern Burkina Faso this weekend, the government said on Wednesday, updating an earlier death toll of 32 that was already the worst loss suffered by security forces in years.
Sunday’s bloodshed has provoked fresh public outrage over the authorities’ failure to curb a four-year Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and forced more than a million people to flee their homes, APA reports quoting Reuters.
The attack near a gold mine in Inata, a territory in the Soum region, killed 49 military police officers and four civilians, a government spokesperson said.
Two senior security service commanders have since been dismissed, he said.
On Monday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Burkina Faso’s capital, demanding President Roch Kabore resign for failing to rein in militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State who regularly attack Burkinabe forces and civilians.
