Gunmen kill 18 in attack on Turkish restaurant
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Gunmen riding motorcycles roared up to a Turkish restaurant in the capital of the West African nation of Burkina Faso and opened fire, killing at least 18 people and battling security forces Sunday night in a hostage-taking standoff that ended early Monday.
The country’s communications minister, Remi Dandjinou, said security forces had killed both attackers. He said at least 20 other people were injured in the attack on the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, a spot popular with foreigners in the capital, Ouagadougou.
Among those killed were two Canadians, two Kuwaitis and citizens of France, Senegal, Nigeria, Lebanon and Turkey in addition to others from Burkino Faso, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.
“This is a terrorist attack,” Dandjinou said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Burkina Faso has been hit by Islamist attacks before. Later Monday, a U.N. peacekeepers’ compound in neighboring Mali came under fire from gunmen.
In January 2016, gunmen from the North Africa branch of al Qaeda attacked a hotel and coffee shop on the same busy avenue in Ouagadougou, killing at least two dozen people.
Al Qaeda’s North African branch, in alliance with local extremist groups, has been aiming to spread its attacks beyond its base in the Sahara desert, with assaults on a beach resort in the Ivory Coast in March 2016 and on the Radisson hotel in Mali’s capital in November 2015.
The group is under heavy pressure from a French-led coalition of forces targeting the militants’ desert strongholds, killing a number of its commanders. The group has vowed to attack France’s allies in the region.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France would remain committed to working with the countries of the region “in the fight against terrorist groups.”
Burkina Faso, a landlocked, impoverished nation in West Africa, has largely been spared the terrorist attacks taking place elsewhere in the Sahel region.
Its president, Roch Kabore, condemned the attack, expressed condolences to the families of the victims and praised security forces for their prompt response.
“The fight against terrorism is a long term battle which is why I appeal for vigilance, solidarity and unity for the whole nation,” he said in a tweet Monday.
Paul Schemm is a Washington Post writer.