“The search mission in the area of an ambush by armed terrorist groups … has established a balance of 41 bodies. The president decrees a 48-hour national mourning, ”said a government statement issued Saturday night.
The government said that among the dead were members of an official self-defense force known as Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), created to support the army.
Volunteers receive 14 days of training and are then sent on patrols and surveillance missions, equipped with light weapons.
Among the victims of Thursday’s attack was Ladji Yoro, considered a leader of the VDP in Burkina Faso, according to the statement.
“Identification of the victims is still in process,” the government statement said.
According to local media, the ambush targeted a convoy of merchants escorted by VDP near Ouahigouya, a city not far from the border with Mali.
The attack was the deadliest since mid-November, when 57 people were killed, including 53 gendarmes.
Like its neighbors Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has been engulfed in a spiral of violence since 2015, attributed to armed jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the militant group Islamic State.
The clashes have left at least 2,000 dead and 1.4 million displaced.