18 Dead in Burkina Faso Restaurant Attack

At least 18 people have been gunned down in a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, the government said Monday, the latest west African attack to target a spot popular with foreigners.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Sunday night’s attack at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, which was often packed with expats who went there to watch football.

Communications Minister Remis Dandjinou said 18 people had been killed -- both Burkinabes and foreigners -- and around ten injured, while security forces had killed two assailants in a counterassault that went on until morning.

It was not clear how many gunmen were involved.

The security operation “has ended” but searches are continuing in buildings in the surrounding neighbourhood, Dandjinou told reporters.

He had earlier said that “some people were held” by the assailants and that “some were released”, but gave no further details.

Turkey said one of its citizens was among the dead, while Paris prosecutors said at least one French national died.

“They started shooting on the terrace. We climbed up the stairs and lay on the ground. The attackers came and pointed their guns at us,” said one survivor, interviewed in hospital on national television.

“I didn’t understand their language, it might have been Arabic.”

A surgeon said the local hospital was “overwhelmed”.

The restaurant is just 200 metres (220 yards) from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners. That attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

A government statement described the latest deadly shooting as a “terrorist attack”, while President Roch Marc Christian Kabore condemned it as “a despicable attack that has Ouagadougou in mourning”.

“The fight against terrorism is a long-term struggle,” he said on Twitter.