Jihadists kill 18 in assault on Burkina Faso eatery
AT least 18 people, including foreigners, were killed and a dozen others wounded in an attack by suspected jihadists on a Turkish restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital, the government said yesterday.
Two assailants were also killed by security forces in a counterassault following Sunday night’s attack on an Ouagadougou restaurant popular with foreigners, Communications Minister Remis Dandjinou said.
It was not clear how many gunmen were involved.
The security operation had ended but searches were continuing in buildings in the restaurant’s neighbourhood, Dandjinou said.
The Istanbul restaurant is just 200m from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January last year that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners.
That attack was claimed by the group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).
The government called the latest deadly shooting 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 in a Twitter message.
A police officer, who did not want to be named, cited witnesses as saying at least two assailants arrived on a motorcycle at about 9pm (11pm SA time) on Sunday armed with Kalashnikovs, and opened fire on the Istanbul restaurant.
A waiter said he saw three men arrive on a 4x4 vehicle at about 9.30pm, dismount and open fire on customers on the terrace.
Dandjinou had earlier said some people were held by the assailants and some released, but gave no further details.
He said the 18 victims included both Burkinabes and foreigners.
Turkey said one of its citizens was among the dead, while Paris prosecutors said at least one French national died in the shooting, which French President Emmanuel Macron condemned as a terrorist attack.
When security forces counterattacked, the shooting was intense at first and then sporadic, a journalist reported.
Video footage posted on Twitter showed people fleeing, as shouting and gunshots are heard. Armed men in uniform are then seen walking towards the attack site.
The gunfire ended at about 5am yesterday (7am SA time).
The wounded were taken to Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.
“We are overwhelmed,” one surgeon said.