Ouagadougou, Nov 5 (AFP) At least five gendarmes and five civilians were killed in an attack on a base in northern Burkina Faso, near the border with Mali, security sources said.

It is the latest deadly attack in the troubled north of the West African country, which is battling a jihadist revolt that has claimed hundreds of lives.

"Many dozens of armed individuals carried out an attack on a gendarmerie post in Oursi in the early hours of Monday morning," a security source told AFP.

"After several hours of gunfire, the attackers managed to get into the camp. Unfortunately we lost five gendarmes." Five civilians, who worked for a private company, were also killed in the assault, another source said.

Reinforcements sent to the post, in Oudalan Province, found it severely damaged. On Sunday, four people including the deputy mayor of a northern Burkina Faso city were killed in an ambush in an area plagued by recurrent jihadist attacks.

Burkina Faso is an impoverished and politically fragile country in the heart of the Sahel, and its security forces are badly-equipped, poorly trained and under-funded.

The country's northern provinces have been battling a four-year-old wave of jihadist violence that came from neighbouring Mali.

The attacks -- typically hit-and-run raids on villages, road mines and suicide bombings -- have claimed more than 630 lives nationally, according to an AFP toll. Nearly 500,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. (AFP)

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