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| - Four soldiers from a brand-new regiment were killed overnight in an ambush in northern Burkina Faso, the epicentre of a five-year-old jihadist insurgency, security sources said Thursday. A patrol from the 14th Interarmy Regiment, a unit created only on Tuesday to fight jihadists, came under attack on the highway linking the towns of Gaskinde and Djibo, where it is based, one said. The toll was four dead and three wounded, another said. Northern Burkina Faso has been badly hit by jihadists who started making incursions from neighbouring Mali in 2015. More than 1,100 people have lost their lives and over a million have fled their homes. Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, and its armed forces are under-equipped and -trained. Last year, 4,000 died in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger jihadist attacks or ethnic violence fomented by the insurgency, according to the UN. ab/pgf/ri/erc
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