Twin Burkina Faso attacks kill three

Three people including one police officer were killed during two attacks in Burkina Faso, security sources said Sunday, the latest violence in its jihadist insurgency.

In one attack, two police officers were ambushed Saturday in the town of Batie in the southwest of the country while investigating reports of unidentified gunmen, a security source told AFP.

The same day near Kaya, the main town in the Centre-Nord region, gunmen attacked members of Volunteers for the Defence of the Nation (VDP), civilians who help the army in their battle against jihadists, said the same source.

Two VDP members were killed and a third wounded, a security source in the region told AFP.

The jihadist insurgency began in neighbouring Mali in 2012 and spread into its territory in 2015, killing more than 1,200 people and displacing roughly one million.

Last weekend, six people including civilians were killed when a military detachment was ambushed in northern Burkina Faso.

The poorly equipped and disorganised army is struggling, and the creation of the VDP was an attempt to bolster efforts against the insurgency.

Members receive 14 days training and are then sent out on patrols and surveillance missions, equipped with light arms.

More than 100 have been killed in combat since January 2020.

Over 1,000 troops from Chad -- pledged in a recent Sahel summit -- are expected to arrive in days to help strengthen security in what is known as the three-border zone, where the frontiers of Burkina, Mali and Niger converge.