Neighbouring Benin’s President Thomas Boni Yayi arrived in the capital on Monday to offer his condolences to President Roch Marc Kabore, and said the West African regional bloc ECOWAS would hold an emergency summit to discuss the issue.
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Three suspected al Qaeda attackers involved in an assault on a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso’s capital that killed 30 people at the weekend were still being sought on Tuesday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.
“They’ll attack western interested when it suits them”, said retired colonel George Petrolekas, of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute.
Internal Security Minister Simon Compaore said the foreign dead included four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two French nationals, two Portuguese, two Swiss and a Dutch person.
The attack began around 7:45 pm (1945 GMT) on Friday when an unknown number of attackers stormed the 147-room Splendid Hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou.
In the wake of the Burkina Faso attacks, Trudeau issued a statement offering Canada’s “deepest condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of all those killed”.
The team’s scheduled 10-day trip to the West African nation was cut short by the attacks that killed 30 people including one of the team’s missionary partners and South Florida native Michael Riddering.
Authorities in Burkina Faso have said the bodies of three assailants had been identified, but several witnesses said they saw more than three attackers and a manhunt was under way for accomplices.
A picture taken on January 18, 2016 shows the damage outside the Cappuccino cafe in Ouagadougou, following a jihadist attack by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) late on January 15. The identity of the sixth person could not immediately be verified, but Quebec and Burkina Faso media said all six were travelling together on a humanitarian trip. Riddering, who once managed a yacht outfitting company in Cooper City, Florida, and his wife, a graphic designer, sold their property and possessions and moved to the town of Yako to run the Les Ailes de Refuge orphanage in 2011, Boyle said.
About 1am, about 50 security forces including the French, Burkinabe and an American tried to enter the hotel but were fired upon and one French special forces member was shot in the leg. Thirty others were still hospitalized, and about 180 had been freed by French and Burkina Faso forces during and after the siege, he said.
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Burkina Faso’s soldier stands near Hotel Splendid. “One attacker even came out of the restaurant to shoot at the vehicle”.
