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OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — A local official says armed men stormed the grand mosque in Burkina Faso's northern village of Salmossi on Friday, killing at least 16 people and wounding two others.
Ernest Bouma Nebie, a regional official in Oudalan province near the border with Mali, said Sunday that armed men entered the mosque during evening prayers.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but jihadist groups with links to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are active in the region.
The U.N. refugee agency says more than a quarter-million people have fled their homes in the West African nation in the past few months because of a marked increase in attacks.
Once-peaceful Burkina Faso experienced its first major extremist attack in 2015 and now contributes to a regional counterterrorism force.
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