Security forces in Burkina Faso hunt for gunmen
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SECURITY forces were yesterday hunting for any possible surviving gunmen from an attack on a top hotel in Burkina Faso that left at least 29 people dead and showed the expanding reach of regional jihadists in west Africa.
The drama saw Burkinabe troops, backed by French special forces, battle militants who stormed the Splendid Hotel, which is popular with foreigners and United Nations staff. At least 13 foreigners are among the dead.
Burkina Faso has declared three days of mourning following the onslaught, which echoed another al-Qaida attack last year on a luxury hotel in neighboring Mali where 20 people were killed, mostly foreigners.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed the latest attack on behalf of an affiliate, saying the gunmen were from the Al-Murabitoun group of notorious one-eyed Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
It is still not clear how many attackers took part in the onslaught — the bodies of three have been identified, but witnesses reported seeing more.
Burkina Faso’s Interior Minister Simon Compaore said security forces were carrying out careful searches, while at the scene of the attack a security cordon was widened yesterday.
Investigators were seen in the streets around the Splendid and the Cappuccino cafe, which was also attacked.
“People are afraid. Anyone who’s not afraid isn’t normal — this is guys with guns,” said Souleymane Ouedraogo, who lives in the area.
Burkina Faso had largely escaped the tide of Islamist violence in the Sahel region.
President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who took office just last month, said on Saturday that the country was in shock.
“For the first time in its history, our country has fallen victim to a series of barbaric terrorist attacks,” he said.
The attack began about 7:45pm on Friday when assailants stormed the hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou.
The hotel and surrounding area became a battleground as Burkina Faso troops backed by French forces launched an attempt to retake it about 2am.
Among those killed were six Canadians, two French nationals, two Swiss, an American, a Portuguese and a Dutch person, the prosecutor’s office said.
Interior Minister Compaore said the bodies of three “very young” jihadists had been identified, all of them men.
Several guests managed to escape from the hotel through side entrances, including Labor Minister Clement Sawadogo, who emerged unscathed.
“It was horrible ... there was blood everywhere. They were firing at people at close range,” Yannick Sawadogo, one of those who escaped, said.
Highlighting the fragile security situation in Burkina Faso, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped on Friday in the Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali.
Malian militant group Ansar Dine said the couple were being held by the al-Qaida-linked “Emirate of the Sahara.”
The pair had been running a surgical clinic since 1972, and no reason has been given for their kidnapping, a statement from their family said.
The hotel attack was the first of its kind in Ouagadougo.
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