Gunmen have killed at least 40 people and wounded 33 others in an attack on the army and volunteer defence forces in northern Burkina Faso.
A detachment of soldiers and civilian volunteers "was the target of an attack by unidentified armed men on Saturday ... at about 4:00 pm," near Aorema village, the government said in a statement on Sunday, adding that the provisional death toll was 34 civilian volunteers and six soldiers.
It happened just days after Burkina Faso's military junta has declared a "general mobilisation" to give the state "all necessary means" to combat a string of insurgent attacks since the start of this year.
The goal is to create a "legal framework for all the actions to be taken" against the insurgents, a statement from the presidency said on Thursday.
Captain Ibrahim Traore, Burkina's transitional president who staged the most recent coup on September 30, has set a goal of recapturing 40 percent of the country's territory, which is controlled by militants affiliated with Al Qaeda and Daesh groups.
"Faced with this security situation, the health of the nation depends on a surge of national spirit by all its daughters and sons in order to find a solution," Defence Minister Colonel Major Kassoum Coulibaly had said in a statement.
Authorities also issued an "advisory" that gives the president "the right to requisition people, goods and services and the right to restrain certain civil liberties", according to another security source.
