According to Thieba, a further 56 people were injured in the attacks, several of them seriously.
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Ogho Ikhalo of Plan Canada, an worldwide development organization that has been working for decades with children in Burkina Faso, said all staff in the country were safe.
“We don’t yet have a total tally of the dead”. They [attackers] set fire to the vehicles.
“It was frightful… there was blood everywhere”.
One Cappuccino survivor said diners at first mistook the gunfire and explosions which erupted at around 8:30 p.m. (2030 GMT) on Friday for firecrackers before two gunmen, dressed all in black and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles, burst in firing indiscriminately.
“Elliott is all for us and we need him like a baby needs his mother”, said resident Moussa Dicko, quoted on the page.
Investigators wearing white protective gloves were seen in the streets around the Splendid and the Cappuccino cafe, which was also attacked.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday condemned the terrorist attack in Burkina Faso that claimed the lives of at least 29 people and expressed solidarity with the country and the region in its fight against terrorism. But the Department of Global Affairs was able to confirm that no employees of the Canadian government were killed.
He quoted one of the wounded as saying there were “more white people than black” among the dead.
Hamadou Ag Khallini, a spokesperson for Malian militant group Ansar Dine, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that jihadists from the al Qaeda-linked “Emirate of the Sahara” group, which operates in northern Mali, are holding the couple.
USA and French special military units ended the standoff and killed at least four of the militants.
French President Francois Hollande denounced the “odious and cowardly attack”, with the European Union and Britain issuing similar condemnations.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the assault, local media reported.
A USA defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington could provide drone-based surveillance.
REUTERS/StringerFrench soldiers arrive at the site of the attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, January 16, 2016.
Al-Murabitoun had already begun to move into the impoverished country of around 17 million. But since he was ousted in a popular uprising, Burkina Faso may have become just another battleground for the Islamist militants.
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The landlocked country, a former French colony, is the largest cotton producer in Africa and is also rich in gold.
