Fighters opened fire on teams of people digging trenches designed to protect security outposts. Several soldiers were missing after the attack, and the attackers took weapons and a military ambulance.

Reporting from Dakar, Senegal, Al Jazeera’s Nicholas Haque said JNIM posted gruesome videos of the aftermath of the attack.

“We see men, women and children laying inside the trenches they were digging themselves. Effectively, they have turned into mass graves,” he said, adding that the hospital in the area has called doctors, nurses and other medical staff from Kaya to treat those who have been injured in the attack.