The government has announced the gruesome killing of 41 people by armed groups in Burkina Faso’s troubled north.

In a statement released late on Saturday, the government said the dead includes members of a government-backed civilian self-defence force known as the Volunteers for the Defence of the Motherland (VDP), set up to support the army.

According to local media, the ambush targeted a convoy of traders escorted by VDP near Ouahigouya, a town not far from the Mali border.

Burkina Faso has faced an increasing security crisis since the beginning of the year; an escalating issue the country’s army is reportedly ill-equipped to contain.

Last year, the government enlisted the help of volunteer militiamen to help the army but they have incurred retaliation by the rebels who attack them and the communities they help.

At least 2,000 people have been killed in the fighting and 1.4 million displaced since the crisis began.

Armed groups have further driven religious and ethnic tensions between farming and herding communities in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to boost recruitment among marginalised communities.

The recent attack is the deadliest since mid-November when 57 people, including 53 gendarmes, were killed in an attack on a gendarmerie post.