Dozens dead in Burkina army HQ, French embassy attacks
OUAGADOUGOU --Dozens of people were killed Friday in twin attacks on the French embassy in Burkina Faso and the country's military headquarters, an assault that coincided with a meeting of regional anti-jihadist forces.
The apparently coordinated attacks underlined the struggle the fragile West African nation faces in containing a bloody and growing jihadist insurgency.
The government said the attack on the military was a suicide car bombing and that a planned meeting of the G5 Sahel regional anti-terrorism force may have been the target.
Officials from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger were at the meeting, representing the G5 Sahel nations who have launched a joint military force to combat jihadists on the southern rim of the Sahara.
Eight members of the armed forces were killed by the blast and the parallel attack on the French embassy, while 80 were wounded, said Security Minister Clement Sawadogo. The minister said eight attackers had been shot dead.
"The vehicle was packed with explosives" and caused "huge damage", Sawadogo said, adding that it was a suicide attack.
Three security sources, two in France and one in West Africa, told AFP that at least 28 people were killed in the attack on the military HQ alone.
French government sources said there were no French casualties and described the situation in Ouagadougou as "under control".
"Our country was once again the target of dark forces," President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a statement.