At Least 51 Soldiers Killed in North Burkina Faso Attack on Friday

At Least 51 Soldiers Killed in North Burkina Faso Attack on Friday
Burkina Faso soldiers in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in a file photo. Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images
|Updated:
0:00

OUAGADOUGOU—At least 51 soldiers were killed when their unit was ambushed in northern Burkina Faso on Friday, the army said on Monday, one of the highest reported death tolls from a single attack since the area became a hotbed of terrorist activity.

The incident occurred two days before France officially marked the end of its military operations in the West African nation, where in 2015 some 400 French special forces had been sent to help fight an insurgency that spread from neighboring Mali.