Toll from attack on Burkina military base rises to 24

The death toll from an attack Monday on a military base in northern Burkina Faso rose to 24, the military said, in an unprecedented blow to the army in its campaign against jihadist insurgents.

Seven people were wounded and five others missing, armed forces headquarters said in a statement Tuesday.

The previous toll from the attack, at Koutougou in Soum province near the border with Mali, had been given late Monday as "more than a dozen".

An "extraordinary meeting of the defence council" was underway at the presidential palace in the capital Ouagadougou, a security source told AFP.

The country's main opposition party, the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), said the government appointed by President Roch Marc Christian Kabore had "completely failed".

It called for a "new team, whose prime task will be to defend territorial integrity and protect the public."