Authorities in Burkina Faso have declared a two-day period of mourning starting Sunday after suspected militants killed at least 41 members of a government-backed civilian militia in the country’s northern desert last week.

A column of civilian fighters from the Homeland Defence Volunteers (VDP), a group the government funds and trains to contain Islamist insurgents, was ambushed on Thursday as it swept a remote area in the northern Loroum province.

It was one of the heaviest single-day losses the civilian militia has experienced to date and occurred one month after an attack on a gendarmerie post killed 54 people – the worst attack on Burkinabe security forces in years.

Source: VOV5