(Bloomberg) --

Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso troops dismantled an Islamist militant camp in the first such joint operation between the neighbors that’s part of regional efforts to curb the spread of jihadist attacks.

Soldiers killed eight suspected militants and seized automatic weapons, ammunition, motorbikes and cell phones at the base in Alidougou in southern Burkina, according to an army official who declined to be identified in line with official policy. Several dozen others were captured, he said.

Attacks in southwestern Burkina Faso have doubled in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2019, according to Heni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Militants linked to al-Qaeda’s Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known by its French acronym JNIM, are operating in the area.

The Comoe National Park in northern Ivory Coast was probably used as an escape route by the militants, according to analysts. Although jihadist attacks in Ivory Coast, the economic powerhouse of French-speaking West Africa, have been rare, it’s among several coastal nations that are under increasing threat from militants based in the Sahel to the north.

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