Police Kill Gunman In Northern Burkina Faso During Ambush

Ouagadougou, Feb 4 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 04th Feb, 2018 ) :Police in northern Burkina Faso shot dead a member of an armed gang who had attempted to ambush their patrol, security forces said Sunday.

"On Saturday 3 February at around 3 pm (1600 GMT), a team from the Deou District Police Station (Oudalan Province, Sahel region) on a security mission was attacked by armed individuals", police said in a statement sent to AFP.

"During the exchange of fire, an assailant was shot dead," a security source said, adding the incident was one of a series of "recurrent ambushes against defence and security forces" in the region.

Northern Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has seen jihadist attacks since the first quarter of 2015, claiming more than 133 lives across 80 attacks, according to an official report. Two Burkinabe policemen were shot dead last Monday in Baraboule, a northern town, bordering Mali.

In December 2016, an attack on a battalion of anti-terrorist forces stationed in Nassoumbou, near the Malian border, killed twelve people. The attack, the most lethal against the Burkinabe army, shocked the country.