An attack by insurgents killed 19 Burkina Faso military police and a civilian on Sunday in the tri-border northern region where the West African nation is battling Islamist militants, Security Minister Maxime Kone said, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Kone said the toll was provisional.
"This morning a detachment of the gendarmerie suffered a cowardly and barbaric attack. They held their position," Kone said on national television, adding that 22 survivors had been found.
The attack on a military police outpost near a gold mine in Inata came two days after another attack in which seven police were killed in the area near Niger and Mali.