Seven soldiers and four support troops were murdered in two ambushes in Burkina Faso’s troublesome north, according to the army official.

Two soldiers and four civilian volunteers helping the army were killed in the first attack near Solle on Thursday, while five paramilitary troops were killed in another raid the same day at Ouanobe, the army said in a statement received Friday.

The ambushes were staged by “terrorists,” according to the army, using a term to signify jihadist groups active in Burkina Faso’s north.

Nine people were wounded, it said, adding that the bodies of some 20 attackers had been found during clean-up operations.

Weapons, ammunition, transport and communication equipment were also seized or destroyed.

Jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have regularly carried out attacks in northern and eastern Burkina Faso since 2015, killing more than 2,000 people and displacing almost two million.

Unrest linked to jihadist groups also plagues Burkina Faso’s West African neighbors Mali and Niger.

The three land-locked countries rank among the poorest in the world and their armed forces are ill-equipped against a foe skilled at hit-and-run raids, ambushes and planting roadside bombs.

In December 2019, Burkina set up an auxiliary force called the Volunteers for the Defence of the Motherland (VDP), which is among the units that has suffered most losses.

Recruits are given two weeks’ military training and then work alongside the army, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties.

On January 24, anger at the security forces’ casualties sparked a mutiny in the army, leading to the overthrow of elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The new strongman, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, has declared security to be a priority.

But bloody attacks continue, despite the creation of “dialogue committees” — a bridge-building experiment in which community leaders talk with local jihadists to try to end the violence.

An ambush in northern Burkina Faso killed 12 troops and four VDP militants on April 8.

According to army data, 15 persons were killed on April 24, including nine troops, in a coordinated assault on two battalions in the north.