Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on Monday named three gunmen behind a deadly attack on a top Burkina Faso hotel that has highlighted the growing reach of jihadist groups in west Africa, as French police joined in the probe.
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Amnesty International says a French-Moroccan photographer who was wounded in the attack by extremists on a hotel in Burkina Faso has died of a heart attack.
One of the victims killed in a terrorist attack in the West African nation of Burkina Faso has ties to the Chicago area.
Amnesty International said Tuesday that a French-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui and Burkina Faso driver Mahamadi Ouedraogo were among those who died.
“They were only three who conducted the raid”.
Burkina Faso’s soldier stands near Hotel Splendid.
The mother of one of the Canadians killed in a terror attack in Burkina Faso has made a desperate plea for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep up Canadian airstrikes against ISIL. “It is the Burkinabes, aided by a French detachment, that carried out the job”, he explained.
Friday night’s attack in Ouagadougou killed at least 29 people from around the world, including an American missionary, before ending in a siege at a second hotel.
The security forces initially thought the attack on the cafe was meant to divert them from the hotel as the main target, said a Burkinabe security official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Burkina Faso ends three days of national mourning today. The six were traveling together as part of a humanitarian mission, and four them were from the same family. Riddering arrived early and was in the cafe with a local pastor; when the attack started, they ran in different directions, Boyle said.
Alaoui was in Burkina Faso for a photography assignment on women’s rights.
According to provisional figures from the Burkinabe government, among the dead were eight Burkinabes, four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two Portuguese, two French, two Swiss and one Dutch citizen.
“For the first time in its history, our country has fallen victim to a series of barbaric terrorist attacks”, he said in a live address to the nation. Seven bodies are yet to be identified, and the list is subject to change.
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In a reminder of the fragile security situation, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped on Friday in Burkina Faso’s northern Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali. AQIM also published photos of the three young men dressed in military fatigues.
