That attack, which also involved a small number of US and French forces providing assistance, resulted in almost 20 people being killed.
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The couple had four children, two of them adopted from Burkina Faso.
The federal government did not identify the six Canadians but a government source said some were humanitarian workers.
” Compaore, the interior minister, told AFP that 10 bodies had been discovered on the terrace of the Cappuccino restaurant”. The two were kidnapped from Djibo, the capital of the northern Soum province in the Sahel near the border with Mali, he said. A journalist in the region said the couple had lived there since 1972, volunteering their health services.
As well as the luxury hotel, a cafe and another hotel nearby were targeted.
Survivors described how the militants were targeting foreign “white people” during the siege with one woman saying: “They kept coming back and forth into Cappuccino”.
“There was general panic”.
“We are saddened by the loss of lives, specifically Canadians, and also all the lives that were impacted by the situation”, she said.
Some of them told Class News’ Upper East regional correspondent William Jalula in an interview that “they are terrorists, so… we are afraid”.
Vehicles including cars and motorbikes were burned, and overturned chairs and shards of glass lay scattered about. Onlookers were kept far away from the fighting that continued into daylight.
“We know that there are victims and there are hostages”.
This morning special forces took back the building after heavy gunfire, freeing 126 hostages and leaving four attackers dead including an Arab and two black Africans. They took control of the Splendid Hotel and were searching nearby hotels to be sure there were not extremists hiding there, said Minister of Security and Internal Affairs Simon Compaore.
Ken Elliot and his wife, Jocelyn, are believed to have been abducted after an attack on Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, on Friday which has left 28 people dead.
The Al Qaeda terrorist group in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
An American who died in a terror attack in Burkina Faso moved halfway across the world with his wife to run an orphanage and women’s crisis center. He said he had been in touch by phone with other employees and that more than a dozen of them were in hiding and awaiting rescue.
The attack will heighten concerns that jihadist groups are casting their net wider in search of targets in west Africa, two months after the hotel siege in Mali.
Meanwhile, at least 27 people are reported to be killed in the attacks.
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Mike Riddering was sitting in a cafe frequented by westerners across the street from the Splendid Hotel in the capital city of Ouagadougou when gunmen rolled up and opened fire. Last September, members of a presidential guard launched a coup that lasted about a week.
