By Staff, Agencies Nearly 60 "terrorists" were killed in Burkina Faso by local forces assisted by French troops deployed in the country, France's military said on Sunday, as a bloody insurgency rages. "On four occasions between January 16 and January 23, 2022, groups of terrorists were located, identified and neutralized by Burkinabe forces and by [foreign] units...

in total nearly 60 terrorists were taken out," the French military said in a statement.

Burkina Faso has been struggling with terrorist attacks since 2015, when militants linked to Al-Qaeda and Daesh [Arabic for ‘ISIS/ISIL’ terrorist group] began mounting cross-border raids from Mali.

More than 2,000 people died, according to a toll compiled by AFP The national emergency aid agency said that 1.5 million people, nearly two-thirds of them children, were internally displaced as of November 30, 2021.

The country's security forces are poorly equipped to face a ruthless and highly mobile foe, adept at carrying out hit-and-run raids aboard motorbikes and pickup trucks.

On November 14, a force described as numbering several hundred men attacked a police base at Inata near the Malian border, killing 57 people, including 53 military police officers.

On December 23, 41 people were killed when a convoy of traders was ambushed near Ouahigouya, also near the Malian frontier.

Last week the West African bloc suspended Burkina Faso's membership following a coup and the detention of the prime minister several days earlier