Dozens dead in attacks on Burkina military HQ, French embassy
OUAGADOUGOU: Dozens of people were killed on Friday (Saturday in Manila) 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.
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
Bystanders look on as security personnel move beside an armored personnel carrier in Ouagadougou on Friday (Saturday in Manila). 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 Agence France-Presse that at least 28 people were killed in the attack on the military headquarters 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.
The violence began mid-morning center of the Burkinabe capital.
passersby before heading towards the French embassy.
At the same time, the bomb went off near the headquarters of the Burkinabe armed forces and the French cultural center, about a kilometer (half a mile) from witnesses said.
Sawadogo said the G5 meeting was supposed to have been held at the headquarters but had been moved to another room.
“Perhaps it was the target. We do not know at the moment. In any case the room was literally destroyed by the explosion,” the minister said.
‘Strengthen our resolve’
The G5 Sahel’s completed force will be composed of 5,000 troops and aims to be fully operational by the end of the month.
It has already carried out op with help from the French army.
Mahamadou Issoufou, Niger’s president and the current chair of the group, said Friday’s attacks “will only strengthen the resolve of the G5-Sahel and its allies in
French President Emmanuel Macron telephoned his Burkinabe counterpart Kabore to express solidarity and send his condolences to the families of the slain security
Macron, who made a high-pro - vember, said the attacks “illustrate once more the threat weighing on the entire Sahel region.”
French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said damage to the embassy was minor, and the mission would be able to resume normal operations “in two or three days”.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on a visit to neighbouring Mali, “strongly condemned” the attack while UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an “urgent and concerted effort” to improve stability in the Sahel.
An interim UN report seen by Agence France-Presse warned of a “growing threat” to the Sahel from two groups: the Islamic State in the Great Sahara (ISGS) and Ansar al-Islam.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Burkina Information Minister Remis Fulgance Dandjinou said the attack “has strong overtones of terrorism.”