Casualties as militants strike Burkina Faso villages

At least 14 people have been killed in two separate attacks by militant groups in Burkina Faso's north, including eight civilian army auxiliaries, security and local sources have said.

"Armed individuals attacked the village of Safi early on Monday," a security source told the AFP news agency on Tuesday, with the auxiliary VDP militia losing eight people.

The attack was confirmed by a local source.

Six civilians were separately killed near Markoye, the security source added.

"The terrorists kidnapped three young people on the Salmossi-Markoye road, who were then found dead in the bush on (Monday)", a relative of one of the victims told AFP.

"They robbed several people... and carried away vehicles."

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Coups and conflict 

One of the world's poorest countries, Burkina has been struggling with a militant offensive since 2015.

Thousands of civilians and members of the security forces have died and around two million people have been displaced.

Disgruntled army officers have carried out two coups this year in a show of anger at failures to roll back the insurgency.

The deterioration in the country's security situation has been used to justify the two coups this year.

The first, in January, saw a military junta led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba overthrow elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The second, in September, saw Captain Ibrahim Traore come to power as he and his supporters ousted Damiba.

Traore has been appointed transitional president with the declared aim of taking pack huge swathes of territory held by "hordes of terrorists".

READ MORE: 'Terrorist attack' kills many soldiers, wounds dozens in Burkina Faso