The authorities announced Saturday that gunmen killed at least 100 people in a village in northern Burkina Faso, in the country's bloodiest attack in years.

The attack took place Friday evening in Solhan village, Yagha province, in the Sahel, according to government spokesman Ousseni Tamboura, who blamed militants. In the area near the Niger border, he claimed, the local market and numerous residences were also burned down.

The incident was described as barbarous by President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

According to Heni Nsaibia, senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, this is the bloodiest incident in Burkina Faso since the West African country was overtaken by jihadists connected to al-Qaida and the Islamic State nearly five years ago.

He said militant organizations had clearly altered gears to exacerbate the situation in Burkina Faso, moving their activities to places outside the immediate reach of the French-led counter-terrorism coalition fighting them in the tri-state border region.

Despite the deployment of almost 5,000 French soldiers in the Sahel, terrorist bloodshed is on the rise. Over 50 people were killed in Burkina Faso in one week in April, including two Spanish journalists and an Irish conservationist. More than a million individuals have been internally displaced throughout the country.

Fearing for his safety, a local who did not want to be identified was visiting relatives in a medical clinic in Sebba town, around 12 kilometers from where the attacks took place. He stated he witnessed a lot of injured patients come into the clinic.

I counted 12 people in one room and around ten in the other. The wounded were cared for by a large number of relatives. Many people were also racing from Solhan to get into Sebba... "People are terrified and scared," he said over the phone to the Associated Press.

The administration has established a period of mourning of 72 hours.