At least 28 died in the attacks, from 18 different countries.
Advertisement
Until Friday’s attack, the landlocked nation, an ally of Western governments against jihadist groups in the arid reaches of the southern Sahara, had largely been spared the violence that has plagued its neighbors.
People gather on Kwame Nkruma avenue near Hotel Splendid where the attackers remain with sporadic gunfire continuing in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou on January 15, 2016.
The death toll in an attack by jihadists on a top hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital rose to 29 on Saturday, with around 30 injured, the country’s Security Minister Simon Compaore said.
We stand with the Burkinabe people against terrorism and extremism. Two attackers were also killed.
“They are held in high esteem by the local people”, the spokesperson said, requesting that their family be granted privacy.
Local security forces have staged an assault on the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso, after gunmen seized the building five hours earlier, according to Reuters. We must be resolute and fight terror.
The attack was launched by the same extremists behind a similar siege at an upscale hotel in Bamako, Mali in November that left 20 dead.
Then they heard the news no one wanted to hear.
The couple had been running a hospital in the country’s north in the town of Djibo, close to Burkina Faso’s border with Mali.
An al-Qaida affiliate known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility online as the attack was ongoing in downtown Ouagadougou at the 147-room hotel, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
France normally has up to 200 special forces troops in the country as part of a regional anti-militant operation. “That makes the country a symbol of progress, which is what those people want to destroy”, said Cynthia Ohayon, a security analyst with the International Crisis Group.
Jihadists are also holding a third foreigner – a Romanian kidnapped in an attack last April that was the first of its kind at the time.
Advertisement
Some analysts point to the security vacuum that has emerged in Burkina Faso since late 2014, when the longtime strongman leader fled power in a popular uprising.
