The attack was the first claimed by Ansarul Islam, Burkina Faso's first homegrown jihadist movement that formed a month prior.

[1] Burkinabe imam Ibrahim Malam Dicko had been fighting for years with Katiba Macina under the leadership of Amadou Koufa.

[2] The soldiers attacked were part of the Anti-terrorist Armed Forces Group (GFAT), a mixed gendarmerie-army battalion of over 600 men who had been deployed to the Malian border in January 2013 at the end of Operation Serval.

[2][5] Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré and Security Minister Simon Compaoré stated that twelve soldiers were killed and four were injured in the attack.

[6][7] The high commissioner of Soum Province, Mohammed Dah, stated that black jihad flags had been waved by the perpetrators during the attack.