At least eight Burkina Faso soldiers were killed on Monday morning in an armed attack on a military unit in the central-north Sanmatenga province, local media reported.

The attack on the Yirgou military detachment took place at around 5 a.m. local time (0500GMT) and left two other soldiers wounded, state television said, quoting security sources.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but sources said search operations are underway to find the attackers.

Last month, Burkina Faso's authorities said unidentified armed men killed six gendarmeries and wounded seven others in an attack on a convoy of vehicles returning from a gold mine in the eastern part of the country.

Groups with links to the Daesh/ISIS terror group are known to frequently carry out similar attacks in the country.

Some 480 civilians were killed in attacks orchestrated by insurgents in Burkina Faso between May and August, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said last month.

More than 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Burkina Faso due to the attacks, according to the NRC./aa