Two Spanish citizens and an Irish national who were abducted by gunmen in eastern Burkina Faso have died, senior Burkina Faso security sources said on Tuesday.
Two Spanish sources with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed that the two Spaniards had died, Reuters reported.
The hostages were taken after an ambush on an anti-poaching patrol in eastern Burkina Faso on Monday.
The attackers were aboard two pick-up vehicles and a dozen motorbikes, according to security sources.
The security sources said the assailants made off with vehicles and various weapons after the attack.
Numerous other foreign workers have been kidnapped in recent years in the former French colony.
Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries, is struggling with a ruthless insurgency by Islamists who swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
Almost 1,100 people have died and more than a million people have fled their homes.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)
