Fifty-three members of the security forces in Burkina Faso have been killed in an attack north of the country by suspected jihadists.

Seventeen soldiers and 36 civilian volunteers for the army died on Monday while repelling an “attack,” the army general staff said on Tuesday in a statement.

The unit had been deployed in the town of Koumbri in Yatenga province to help the resettlement of residents forced out of the area by jihadists more than two years ago, it said.

About 30 members of the security forces were injured, the army added.

It said that several attackers had been “neutralised” in a counter-operation and their combat equipment destroyed.

Operations are still under way in the area, it said.

Burkina Faso saw two military coups last year, triggered — as in neighbouring Mali and Niger — by anger at failures to stem a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

Regional group the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) condemned the attack.

In a statement the West African bloc said it had learned “with shock” about the death of the soldiers and civilian volunteers, condemning the “terrorist attacks” expressing its “solidarity with the Burkinabe people”.

Burkina Faso was suspended from ECOWAS after the military seized power.