A ceremony has been held in Ivory Coast to pay tribute to 14 soldiers who were killed in a jihadist attack on a military camp earlier this month.

President Alassane Ouattara and several government ministers attended the event alongside relatives of the soldiers, whose coffins were draped in the country’s orange, white and green flags.

"They made the supreme sacrifice to protect Ivory Coast from the barbarism of those who like vampires only aspire to drink blood," army chief of staff Aly Justin Dem is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Since 2012 there has been a sharp increase in violence in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and correspondents say countries further south are increasingly worried that the jihadist threat is spreading.

Four years ago 19 people were killed in the Ivorian tourist resort of Grand Bassam.