Speaking on Saturday evening, President Kabore declared a three-day period of national mourning, saying Burkina Faso had become a first-time victim of “barbaric” terrorist attacks “of unparalleled cowardice”.
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The victims of the pogrom were said to be having drinks outside and in a popular hotel, before the tragedy struck, as their assailants screamed Allahu akhbar (Arabic for God is great) as gunned them down.
Burkina Faso’s Internal Affairs Minister Simon Compaore said that 10 bodies were found inside the Cappuccino Cafe, a restaurant located next to the Splendid Hotel.
According to ABC News, pair were been kidnapped on Friday and now believed to be in the hands of jihadists linked to Al Qaeda.
A security source told news agencies that at least four of the attackers were killed, including two women.
“We could hear them talking and they were walking around and kept shooting at people who seemed alive”, Sawadogo told CNN affiliate BFMTV.
Witnesses said the attackers wore turbans and spoke a language not native to Burkina Faso, a former French colony.
The mother-in-law of an American missionary has confirmed that he was among those killed after al-Qaida fighters attacked the hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou.
The French Embassy said it will send a warning message to French nationals in Burkina Faso to alert them about the situation.
The couple had four children, two of them adopted from Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore confirmed on Sunday that two Australians had been kidnapped near the border of Mali.
The intervention of French special forces was key to retaking control of the hotel but this latest attack is another blow for France’s military strategy in the Sahel.
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.
In addition to trading about $75 million in goods and importing another $48.5 million in the fiscal year 2013-2014, Canada provided $33 million for development assistance in Burkina Faso that same year.
They then took off to the Splendid Hotel, where they seized hostages.
The couple have operated a 120-bed clinic in the town of Dijbo, where Ken is the only surgeon, for more than 40 years.
Last April, al-Murabitoun claimed the abduction of the Romanian security chief of a mine in the north of the impoverished country of about 17 million.
French Ambassador Gilles Thibault put the death toll at 27 and said on Twitter that around 150 hostages had been freed in an operation that received support from French and United States forces.
Most in Burkina Faso recoil at the idea of extremism now taking hold here, adding to the woes of one of the poorest countries in the world.
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The attacks threaten foreign investment in the region, condemning countries to a cycle of poverty and instability, making it easier for terrorist groups to recruit alienated, jobless young men to their cause.
