Twin blasts kill 15 Burkina Faso troops: army

Two explosions killed 15 soldiers in Burkina Faso on Tuesday, the army said, the latest in a series of such attacks as the country battles a jihadist insurgency.

The twin blasts using "improvised explosive devices occurred on the road from Bourzanga to Djibo" in the Centre-North region, the army general staff said.

"The toll for both incidents is 15 fallen soldiers and one wounded."

It was carried out during an escort mission, the statement said.

"One of the vehicles in the convoy, which was carrying troops, hit an explosive device near Namsiguia district in Bam province," it added.

While troops secured the area and tended to the victims, "a second device was remotely detonated, causing many casualties".

Jihadists based in neighbouring Mali began mounting cross-border raids on Burkina Faso and neighbouring Niger in 2015.

In Burkina Faso, violence blamed on jihadists affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group has killed thousands of people and forced 1.9 million more to flee their homes.

On Monday, a suspected jihadist attack killed six civilians and four security auxiliaries in the northern province of Yatenga, a security source said.

Another alleged jihadist operation took the lives of four soldiers and nine auxiliaries on Thursday in the Bourzanga district, the army said, also in the north of the country.

Burkina Faso's ruling junta took power in a January coup that ousted former president Roch Marc Christian Kabore, amid widespread anger over the government's failure to quell the insurgency.

Today more than 40 percent of the country remains outside the government's control, according to official figures.