Nine people were killed and several injured in an ambush by unknown assailants in northern Ghana, said Zubeiru Abdulai, head of the local district of Pusiga.

The attack took place near the border with Burkina Faso, where Islamist militants are waging an insurgency. Militant violence in Ghana is rare, but its neighbours Togo and Ivory Coast have seen militants cross their northern borders to wage sporadic attacks.

The attackers shot into two vehicles carrying traders on their way to the market town of Cinkasse, said Abdulai, who added the injured were being treated at the Bawku government hospital. Most of the victims were women, he said.