SCORES of people were killed in Burkina Faso on Saturday in an attack believed to have been carried out by jihadists.

State broadcaster Radio Television du Burkina (RTB) confirmed yesterday that “dozens were killed” but gave no further information.

The Infowakat news service reported: “The assailants stormed the village market where they killed about 50 people.

“By the time we went to press, Tongomael Municipality remained cut off from communication network as the assailants had destroyed the infrastructure before committing the crime.”

The attack on the village of Silgadji in Soum province took place on Saturday but details only began to emerge late on Monday.

The region is being plagued by instability with a surge in jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in recent months. Some 4,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in the three countries last year, compared with 770 just three years earlier.

Last week 32 people were killed in Burkina Faso when jihadists attacked and burned down a market, days after Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba and his cabinet resigned after emergency measures failed to control the situation.

Around 500,000 people are displaced in Burkina Faso as affiliates of al-Qaida and Isis continue their deadly attacks.

On Sunday 19 soldiers were shot dead in an ambush on a military post in neighbouring Mali.

UN special representative for west Africa and the Sahel Mohamed Ibn Chambas warned in a recent security council briefing that “the geographical focus of terrorist attacks has shifted eastwards from Mali to Burkina Faso and is increasingly threatening west African coastal states.

“The humanitarian consequences are alarming,” he said.