Fourteen students died on Saturday morning in Toeni, Sourou province, in northwestern Burkina Faso when the bus transporting them jumped on a mine, Xinhua learned from a security source.

"A bus transporting students to the city of Toma jumped on a mine. The death toll is 14 and four injured," an army official said on condition of anonymity to Xinhua.

The reason of the incident was not immediately clear and further details had yet to emerge.

An Islamist insurgency last year has ignited ethnic and religious tensions in Burkina Faso, especially in northern areas bordering Mali.

On Dec. 1, 2019, 14 people were shot dead in an attack on a church in eastern Burkina Faso. On Nov. 6, 2019, gunmen opened fire on a convoy of buses carrying mine workers in the country's Est region, killing 39.