France’s prime minister says that a total of six people carried out the deadly attacks on the cafe and Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital – and three are still on the loose. Burkina Faso’s security minister, Simon Compaore, said on Tuesday that several people had been detained and questioned but he declined to give further details, citing the ongoing investigation. AQIM said in the statement that it called the attack a “drop in the sea of global jihad”.
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Other work centred on migrants and refugees, and in 2013 she organised a photo workshop for young refugees in Rabat with the help of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Soldiers securing the scene of a terrorist attack scene during visit by Burkina Faso President Kaboré and Benin President Yayi Boni. Others killed include seven citizens of Burkina Faso, two Ukrainians, two Swiss, two French and one each from the U.S., Holland, Portugal and Libya, and one French-Ukrainian, according to Burkina Faso officials who released a partial list.
“Following the barbaric attack by the jihadists allied to the Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) some angry civilians began attacking people with a long beard or those who had covered their heads with scarfs” Compaore said. Twenty-eight people from 18 different nations died in the attack; the 156 people trapped in the hotel during the siege were freed and taken to safety. From there they continued to fire their weapons and security forces came under fire when leaving the hotel around 4:30 a.m.
Tributes poured in Tuesday for well-known Franco-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, who was severely wounded in the attack and late Monday became the 30th and latest victim of the bloody attack.
Missionaries and humanitarians from the USA and Canada lost their lives in terrorist attacks in Africa and Indonesia last week.
The attack was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadi attacks that have hit neighboring Mali since 2012.
“Ouagadougou was not considered to be a high-risk destination and Leila was being supported by colleagues from our national office in Burkina Faso during her assignment and accompanied by Mahamadi, a national of Burkina Faso”.
The French parliament has observed a minute’s silence in their memory.
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Ken and Jocelyn Elliot, a Christian couple in their eighties, have been setting up medical facilities in Burkina Faso since the 1970s. The group is based in the Sahara Desert between Mali, Niger and Algeria.
