Burkina Faso security ministry Clement Sawadogo says ten police officers were killed and three wounded in an ambush in north-western Burkina Faso on Thursday.
Confirming the toll on national television, the security Minister announced an increase in police and army forces patrolling the area.
The officers were attacked while heading to the village of Loroni, near the border with Mali, after a school had been attacked and textbooks torched by armed assailants.
The wounded, including two in serious condition and have been taken to a hospital in Dedougou.
Burkina Faso has been increasingly hit by deadly attacks over the last three years beginning in the north of the country but has since spread to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.
