Burkina Faso army has revealed that during a military operation earlier this week in the southeast of the country, civilians were mistakenly killed.
The West African country has been battling an armed insurrection by rebel groups, some of whom are affiliated to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), who hold huge areas of territory within the country and carry out frequent assaults across the Sahel.
The army said in a statement on Wednesday, “During operations which made it possible to neutralize several dozen terrorists, the strikes unfortunately caused collateral victims within the civilian population.”
How many civilians were killed was not stated.
According to the report, the victims were struck by projectiles on Monday in the area between Kompienga and Pognoa, close to the Togo border.
Last month, an air attack along the same border in Togo resulted in the unintentional deaths of seven children. Togo has been dealing with the spillover of militancy from Burkina Faso.
