Government officials in Burkina Faso has confirmed that unidentified gunmen killed 40 people while injuring 33 others in an attack on the army and volunteer defense forces in the northern part of the West African country.

The incident was confirmed in a statement on Monday April 17 2023.

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According to the statement, the attack occurred in the village of Aorema in the North Region, not far from the border with Mali.

According to the statement released on Sunday, the attack claimed the lives of six soldiers and 34 members of a volunteer defense force.

The area where the attack occurred is controlled by extremist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, which have carried out attacks there on a regular basis for years.

No armed group has taken responsibility for the violent campaign as of the time of this report.

The latest attack comes nine days after gunmen in the north of Burkina Faso killed 44 people in the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi.

Burkina Faso’s unrest prompted two coups by the military in 2022. The Burkinabe military heads vowed to retake control of the country but have been unable to put a stop to frequent attacks.

The unrest has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and has since spread into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of 274,200 km², bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and the Ivory Coast to the southwest. As of 2021, the country had an estimated population of 20,321,378.