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| - Burkina Faso troops killed "20 terrorists" during a clash in the restive north of the country in which eight soldiers also died, the army said Wednesday. The incident happened when an army patrol in Yagha province was ambushed by "armed individuals" on Monday near the Niger border, the General Staff of the Armed Forces said in a statement. "A response unit was able to neutralise 20 terrorists. Sadly, eight soldiers lost their lives during the fighting," it continued. The army toll figures could not be independently verified. On Tuesday, security sources had spoken of eight troops killed in a jihadist attack, without mentioning casualties among the attackers, Burkina Faso is part of a regional effort to battle an Islamist insurgency, along with neighbouring Mali and Niger, Mauritania and Chad. However, the West African country's under-equipped and poorly trained military has been unable to stem the violence despite help from France, which has 5,000 troops in the region. According to UN figures, jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger left nearly 4,000 people dead last year. Some 840,000 people have been displaced since 2015, and more than 850 killed. ab/de/ayv/pvh/spm
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