Benin's armed forces have suffered heavy losses in an attack on one of their most well-equipped positions in the north, where troops are trying to curb cross-border assaults by Islamist militants, the national guard's chief of staff said on Thursday.

Twenty-eight soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Benin, a security source told AFP on Thursday, as violence blamed on jihadists based in neighbouring countries increases.

Benin forces suffer heavy losses in a border attack. Are political tensions rising in Sao Tome? And holding the South African authorities to account for chronic water shortages.