Hostages taken in Burkina Faso hotel attack

OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO— Al Qaeda militants struck an upscale hotel and nearby café popular with westerners in Burkina Faso’s capital late Friday, taking an unknown number of hostages and forcing others to hide for their lives as gunfire and explosions rang out. Commandos used explosives to storm the building five hours later, accidentally setting fire to the hotel.

It was not immediately known how many people may have been killed during the siege, though a survivor told hospital director Robert Sangare he estimated the toll could be as high as 20. At least 15 other people were seriously wounded by bullets and undergoing treatment at the Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital, he said.

The local Al Qaeda affiliate known as AQIM claimed responsibility online as the attack was ongoing in downtown Ouagadougou at the 147room Splendid Hotel, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

In a message posted in Arabic on the militants’ “Muslim Africa” Telegram account, it said fighters had “broke into a restaurant of one of the biggest hotels in the capital of Burkina Faso, and are now entrenched and the clashes are continuing with the enemies of the religion.” Fighters who spoke by phone later “asserted the fall of many dead Crusaders,” AQIM said, according to SITE.

Witness Vital Nounagnon told The Associated Press that he saw four men wearing turbans attack the hotel and neighbouring Cappuccino Café about 7:30 p.m. Another witness who gave only his first name, Gilbert, said that when Burkinabe security forces first arrived, they turned around rather than confront the attackers.

A spokesman for Canada’s Global Affairs Department said it was trying to determine if any Canadians were caught up in the attack, but there was no immediate indication of that.