Hotel attack leaves at least 28 dead in 12-hour assault
French, Burkinabe forces kill four assailants, two of them women
al-Qaeda fighters who stormed a popular hangout in Burkina Faso’s capital at dinnertime came with a mission to kill as many people as possible, firing at people as they moved to a hotel and setting the cafe ablaze, survivors and officials said Saturday.
When the gunfire stopped after a more than 12-hour siege, at least 28 people had been slain in an unprecedented attack on this West African country long spared the jihadist violence experienced by its neighbors.
Like the extremist attacks from Paris to Jakarta, the assailants in the Friday evening attack targeted an area where people from different nationalities gathered to enjoy life. In Ouagadougou, the victims had been grabbing a cold drink outside or staying at one of the capital’s few upscale hotels. In this city with a large aid worker presence, the attackers sought to shoot as many non-Muslims as possible, screaming “Allahu akhbar” (Arabic for God is great) as they entered.
An audio tape later released by the al-Qaeda group claiming responsibility for the carnage was entitled: “A Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts.”
Among the victims from 18 different countries were the wife and 5-year-old daughter of the Italian man who owns the Cappuccino Cafe, where at least 10 people died in a hail of gunfire and smoke after the attackers set the building ablaze before moving on to the Splendid Hotel nearby. Some survivors cowered for hours on the roof or hid in the restaurant’s bathroom.
The mother-in-law of an American missionary confirmed Saturday that he was among the dead. Carol Boyle said Michael Riddering, 45, of Cooper City, Fla., had been working in Burkina Faso since 2011. Riddering died in the Cappuccino Cafe, where he was to meet a group planning to volunteer at the orphanage and women’s crisis center he ran with his wife, Amy.
He leaves behind four children, two of whom were adopted from Burkina Faso.
Riddering, who once managed a yacht outfitting company in Cooper City, and his wife, a graphic designer, sold their property and possessions and moved to the town of Yako to run the Les Ailes de Refuge orphanage in 2011, Boyle said. The complex also includes a clinic, classrooms and a home for abused women and widows.
Authorities said the four known attackers — all killed by security forces — had come in a vehicle with plates from neighboring Niger. At least two of them were women and one was of African descent. Witnesses said they wore the turbans often worn in the sand-swept countryside of the Sahel, and some spoke in French with an Arabic accent, suggesting some may have come from further north in Africa.
Burkinabe forces backed by French soldiers based in neighboring Mali helped free at least 126 hostages.