13 gendarmes were killed on Sunday by unidentified gunmen in an ambush near Taparko, in the Centre-Nord Region of Burkina Faso, the army said in a statement on Monday.
Five other wounded gendarmes had been evacuated for treatment, while an offensive is underway to find the attackers, added the statement.
On Sunday, a team from the gendarmerie of Dori, on an escort mission about five kilometres from Taparko, Namentenga province in the Centre-North region of Burkina Faso, rescued the victims of an explosion of a bus that hit a landmine the same day in the same region.
It was returning from this mission around 3:30 p.m. when the team of gendarmes fell into an ambush set by unidentified gunmen near Taparko, according to the statement.
The security situation in Burkina Faso had worsened since 2015, with terrorist attacks killing more than 1,000 people and displacing over one million others in the west African nation. (Xinhua/NAN)