A weekend attack by suspected jihadists on a strategic town in northern Burkina Faso killed around 10 civilians, including seven Ghanaians, according to officials and locals.

Though the army has insisted it repelled the assault on Saturday, that toll brings the number of people believed killed in jihadist attacks between Thursday and Sunday in the West African nation to at least 20, according to local and security sources.

For more than a decade, Burkina Faso has been plagued by violence from militants allied to either the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda across swathes of its desert territory.

Despite the army seizing power in a 2022 coup on the promise to restore security within months, the country remains caught in a spiral of violence.

On Saturday, assailants stormed Titao, capital of the northern Louroum province, targeting the military detachment stationed in the strategic city.

According to a resident who spoke to AFP on Monday, “there were about 10 deaths among the civilian population”.

“Traders and truck drivers who had come to the market were killed,” the local said, adding that “several shops and trucks were set on fire.”

The interior minister of Ghana, which borders Burkina Faso to the south, told Joy FM radio on Monday that seven Ghanaian tomato sellers were killed in the attack, adding that their bodies had been burnt beyond recognition.

The Burkinabe army, which rarely communicates on the country’s frequent attacks, broke its silence on national television late on Sunday to claim it had repelled a jihadist offensive on Titao.

In an interview, army spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Abdoul Aziz Ouedraogo claimed the jihadists had set the market on fire to make “propaganda” videos.

On Monday, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known by its Arabic acronym JNIM, said it was behind the attack on Titao, claiming to have killed “dozens of Burkinabe soldiers” in the raid.

The Al-Qaeda-linked group likewise claimed responsibility for assaults on army bases in Nare, Tandjari, Bilanga and Ouahigouya between Thursday and Sunday, which it said took the lives of at least 19 soldiers.

According to conflict monitor ACLED, Burkina Faso’s jihadist conflict has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers since 2015, more than half of them in the past three years. (The PUNCH)