Officials say 44 people were killed in two separate attacks in northern Burkina Faso on Thursday.
The twin attacks occurred in the Sahel region, near the Niger border, in the villages of Kourakou and Tondobi.
Although no group has admitted responsibility for the attacks, jihadist violence is common in the region, and officials have blamed “armed terrorist groups.”
The region is known to be home to militant groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS).
Rodolphe Sorgho, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Sahel region, said the perpetrators of the “despicable and barbaric attack” had been “put out of action.”
Other villagers were reportedly injured in the attacks, but the exact number is unknown. “Actions to stabilize the area are underway,” Mr Sorgho said.
According to one resident, “a large number of terrorists burst into the village” and he heard gunfire all night.
“We discovered several dozen dead on Friday morning,” he explained.
According to AFP, the killings were carried out in retaliation for the lynching of two jihadists who attempted to steal cattle a few days earlier.
The killings on Thursday night occurred near the village of Seytenga, where dozens of people were killed last June.
Burkina Faso and its neighbors have been dealing with long-running jihadist insurgencies since 2013.
Thousands of people have been killed and over two million have been displaced as a result of the crisis. The violence has caused significant political upheaval in the country.
