NNA -Twenty-one people, most of them members of the security forces, have been killed in Burkina Faso in attacks by suspected extremists, security sources said on Wednesday.

Fourteen members of the VDP volunteer militia and four soldiers died on Monday in Sawenga in central-eastern Burkina, while five were wounded, a source said.

Another security source confirmed the toll, saying that the clash occurred during an operation to secure the area, and that “more than 50 terrorists were neutralized” in an airborne counter-attack.

Separately, a police source said a policeman and two civilians were killed on Monday night in an attack on a police border post at Yendere, on the southwestern frontier with Ivory Coast.

A trucker in the area confirmed the attack, adding that many local people had already fled into Ivory Coast because of terrorist incursions.

Ivory Coast hosts around 18,000 Burkinabe refugees, more than double the tally for 2022, according to the UN's refugee agency. -- AFP

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