Burkina Faso: Dozens killed in militant violence

Islamist militants killed at least 22 people and injured several others in Burkina Faso, a government official said.

"The cowardly and barbaric attack" occurred late Monday in several villages in the northwestern Kossi province, regional governor Babo Pierre Bassinga said in a statement.

Bassinga said children were among the victims. 

A security official told AFP news agency that armed men attacked the village of Bourasso in Kossi overnight.

Military forces have been deployed to the area and hosts are being organized to take care of people who fled to nearby cities, the statement added.

In another attack on Saturday in northern Burkina Faso, 12 people died in Namissiguima commune in Yatenga province, another security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Islamist violence on the rise

Burkina Faso's military ousted Burkina Faso's democratically elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, this January, accusing him of not doing enough to stem growing militant Islamist violence.

Even though a new government was formed this March, the violence has only increased.

At least 135 people were killed in 12 militant attacks during the first two weeks of June, the Associated Press reported, citing an internal security report for aid workers.

Burkina Faso's military recently said it would create two military zones to check violence.

Burkina Faso has been batting an Islamist insurgency since 2015, led by by groups like al-Qaeda and the "Islamic State."

Since 2015, thousands of people have been killed and nearly 2 million displaced, according to the United Nations.

rm/wmr (Reuters, AFP, AP)