OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 5, 2018 (MENA) – France carried out air strikes in northern Burkina Faso after Islamist militants attacked a police unit at a local gold mine, the latest incident to underscore rising insurgency in the West African region, Euronews reported late Thursday. The arid Sahel region is suffering a spike in violence by militant groups linked to al Qaeda and Daesh, highlighting the difficulty international partners face in restoring regional stability. The Burkinabe Ministry of Security said one gendarme was killed and another wounded in an attack on police on Wednesday at the Inata gold mine in the northern Soum region carried out by a large group of heavily armed terrorists. France's army said in statement that at the request of the local authorities its forces intervened to hunt down the attackers. It dispatched a Reaper drone and two Mirage fighter jets from a base in neighbouring Niger on Wednesday night. "The drone detected a column of several motorcycles leaving the area in the direction of the north. After observing the group and establishing its terrorist nature, both Mirage planes carried out strikes," the statement said. The northern region of Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has been the theatre of many jihadist attacks since 2015.
