Speaking in Peterborough, Ont. on Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led a moment of silence for the victims and condemned the attacks on the Splendid Hotel and nearby Cappuccino Cafe, which left a estimated total of 28 dead, as a “brutal act of violent terrorism”.
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Maude Carrier was one of six aid workers from Quebec killed on Friday when a group of Islamist terrorists stormed a luxury hotel and cafe in the capital city of Ouagadougou.
Swiss authorities said its two nationals who were killed were also in Burkina Faso for humanitarian reasons.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have issued a formal statement on Monday to identify three attackers it says were responsible for deadly raid in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
Leila Alaoui, 33, whose pictures featured in the New York Times and Vogue magazine, and whose latest Paris art show wound up at the weekend, died of a heart attack shortly before her evacuation after being shot twice in the leg and thorax. “We grieve with Amy and her family, and all who knew Mike”.
Mr Compaore and Burkina Faso’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Alpha Barry, have met diplomats, trying to reassure them that the west African country will remain a safe place.
In the statement, AQIM identified the three attackers as Al Battar Al Ansari, Abu Muhammad Al Buqali Al Ansari and Ahmed Al Fulani Al Ansari, according to Reuters.
“She praised the assistance provided to Leila by the Moroccan embassy in Ouagadougou, pointing out that Morocco’s ambassador regularly came to her bedside while Leila came to Burkina Faso as a French citizen”.
Security forces in Burkina Faso retook the 146-room hotel on Saturday after firefights with militants, at least three of whom were killed.
The US State department has said an American also died.
In France, where she was born, President Francois Hollande paid his respects while parliament observed a minute of silence in memory of the dead.
“I think it’s just a matter of time, whether it’s in Abidjan, Accra, or Dakar”, Cynthia Ohayon, a Burkina Faso-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, told Bloomberg.
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In another reminder of the country’s fragile security situation, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped on Friday in the northern Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali.
