Burkina Faso declares two-day mourning period after 41 people are killed in an ambush
Burkina Faso declares two-day mourning period after 41 people are killed in an ambush
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After suspected militants killed at least 41 members of a government-backed civilian militia in the country's desert north this week, authorities in Burkina Faso have announced a two-day period of mourning.

Authorities stated on Saturday that a column of civilian fighters from the Homeland Defence Volunteers (VDP), a group that the government pays and trains to combat Islamist insurgents, was attacked on Thursday while patrolling a rural region in northern Loroum province. It was one of the biggest single-day losses the civilian militia has ever suffered, and it came just a month after a gendarmerie post attack killed 53 people, the worst attack on Burkinabe security personnel in years.

"In this terrible scenario, and as a respect to the courageous VDP and citizens who died in defence of the motherland, the President of Burkina Faso proclaims a forty-eight-hour national mourning period, beginning Sunday," said government spokesperson Alkassoum Maiga in a statement.

Authorities have faced recurrent protests in recent months over their alleged inability to stop a four-year Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds and driven over a million people to abandon their homes throughout Africa's Sahel region.

Militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have killed troops in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali virtually every week in irregular strikes. Hundreds of troops from Burkina Faso and Niger were involved in a coordinated attack earlier this month that killed nearly 100 terrorists and captured rifles, improvised explosive devices, and hundreds of motorbikes says the Burkinabe army.

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