Burkina Faso declares state of emergency in north following attacks

Burkina Faso has declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces, a government spokesman says, as extremist groups intensify attacks in areas bordering Mali.

Security has deteriorated in the West African country as militants seek to increase their influence across the poorly policed scrublands of the Sahel region just south of the Sahara Desert.

Burkinabe authorities are facing security problems from "the diffuse, cross-border nature of the terrorist threat," government spokesman Remy Fulgance Dandjinou said following a special meeting of the cabinet.

Last week, ten gendarmes were killed in an attack near the Malian border claimed by Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), an umbrella group for al-Qaeda-linked militants in the Sahara.

JNIM claimed responsibility for other attacks this year, including one in the capital Ouagadougou in March that killed about eight security agents and wounded dozens of others.

SS