Northern Burkina Faso has been embroiled in a jihadist insurgency since 2015, with the Mali-based al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), Niger-based Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, and homegrown Ansarul Islam controlling swathes of territory and attacking civilians and Burkinabe forces.

[1] These groups had been expanding throughout Burkina Faso between 2017 and 2018, with attacks on the capital of Ouagadougou killing eight soldiers in March 2018 and Burkinabe forces defeating an Ansarul Islam contingent in Inata in October 2018.

[4] A ten-man patrol from the Toeni Territorial Gendarmerie Brigade led by Warrant Officer Ouattara Issouf and based twenty-five kilometers from Loroni, arrived in the town at 9am that day for a security mission to find the arsonists.

Three gendarmes were killed immediately, and the other seven called for reinforcements and fought back against the attackers.

[1][5] All ten men were killed, and a convoy of reinforcements from Dédougou hit an IED on the way to Loroni, injuring several soldiers.