OUAGADOUGOU, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 people, including seven students, were killed on Saturday in Toeni, Sourou province, in northwestern Burkina Faso when the bus transporting them jumped on an explosive device, said the Burkina Faso government in a press release on Saturday evening.
"In the morning of Saturday, three buses left from Toeni for Tougan carrying 160 passengers, one of the buses jumped on an explosive device", according to the presse release.
"The provisional assessment reports 14 deaths, among which seven students, there are also nineteen injured including three in serious condition," added the press release.
The injured were immediately sent to the hospital to receive treatment.
The government "strongly condemns this cowardly and barbaric act which aims to damage the morale of the people".
An Islamist insurgency last year has ignited ethnic and religious tensions in Burkina Faso, especially in northern areas bordering Mali.
On Dec. 1, 2019, 14 people were shot dead in an attack at a church in eastern Burkina Faso. On Nov. 6, 2019, gunmen opened fire on a convoy of buses carrying mine workers in the country's Est region, killing 39.
