"The government regrets and condemns the spread on social media of images inciting hatred and communal violence, and of false information aimed at undermining social cohesion and the peaceful coexistence of our country," government spokesperson Pingdwende Gilbert Ouedraogo wrote in a statement.

Earlier in the week, social media accounts had carried videos showing dozens of bloodied bodies strewn on the ground, with no apparent signs of life, their hands and feet bound. Most of them appeared to be women, children, and elderly people.

According to a local source contacted by AFP, "entire families" of ethnic Fulanis were killed in the Solenzo area between March 10 and 11 by soldiers and allied civilian militias.

The Fulani community is regularly stigmatised in the Sahel, accused of joining jihadist groups or of collaborating with them.

On Friday, Human Rights Watch called on the military leaders who seized power in Burkina Faso in September 2022 to investigate the killings.

It counted 58 bodies in the videos, but believes the death toll could be higher.

But the government spokesman insisted that jihadists had attacked positions of a local civilian militia, and that some hundred "terrorists" were killed in the ensuing gunfight.

He said the militia members later discovered civilians that the jihadists had sought to use as human shields, and had taken them to safety.

"This vast disinformation campaign follows the recent events in Solenzo, which were misrepresented to the utmost extent, to discredit our valiant fighters and frighten the peaceful population," he said.

Burkina Faso has been caught in a spiral of jihadist violence since 2015, which has left more than 26,000 dead, half of them since a military coup in 2022, according to Acled, which records victims of conflicts around the world.