Two Kuwaitis among dead in Burkina Faso attack
Victims of Turkish restaurant assault were ‘mainly women and children’
Eighteen people including eight foreigners were killed in a terror attack on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso’s capital after an hours-long stand-off in which two attackers were killed.
“At this moment our forces have neutralised two terrorists and the number of casualties, still provisional, is 18 dead and several wounded,” communications minister Remy Danguinou said yesterday.
Mr Danguinou said the dead were “mainly children and women” and the toll could rise.
The attack began on Sunday evening at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant in central Ouagadougou, which is frequented by foreigners. There were conflicting reports about the number of assailants.
Two gunmen in winter jackets arrived on a motorbike and crashed into a car parked outside the restaurant about 9pm, said eyewitness Hassane Guebre, who works as a parking guard.
Mr Guebre said the attackers opened fire when customers stood up to see what had happened.
But a waiter at the restaurant said he saw “three men arrive in a 4x4 vehicle”.
About 10.15pm, security forces launched a counter-assault against the assailants who were hiding in the building.
The country’s foreign minister Alpha Barry said yesterday the foreigners killed in the attack included one Frenchman, one Canadian woman, male victims from Senegal, Niger, Lebanon and Turkey, and two Kuwaiti women. Three victims remained unidentified.
Among them were a Frenchman and a Turkish citizen.
At least three members of Burkina Faso’s security forces were wounded during the assault, which lasted for about seven hours, said security force spokesman Capt Guy Ye. Customers fled the restaurant as police and paramilitary gendarmerie surrounded it amid gunfire.
“I just ran but my brother was left inside,” said a woman who was in the restaurant celebrating his birthday when the shooting began.
The wounded were taken to Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital, where a surgeon said: “We are overwhelmed.”
“We received about a dozen wounded, including three who have died. The condition of the other wounded is critical. Three of them are currently being operated on,” he said.
President Roch Marc Christian Kabore condemned the incident as “a despicable attack that has Ouagadougou in mourning”, and said on Twitter that “the fight against terrorism is a long-term struggle”.
French president Emmanuel Macron condemned the assault and praised the “effective mobilisation” of the Burkina Faso security forces in ending the assault.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which continued into the early hours yesterday.
Burkina Faso has suffered a string of attacks claimed by extremist groups in recent years.
In December, a dozen soldiers were killed in an assault on a base in the north of the country. And in October there was an attack that killed four troops and two civilians.
The worst recent attack was an assault on a hotel and cafe in central Ouagadougou in January last year, which killed 30 people including several foreigners.
Gunmen from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb attacked the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant, sparking a long stand-off with security forces.
The hotel and cafe attack came weeks after extremists claimed an assault on a hotel in Bamako, Mali, that killed 20 people.
There have also been kidnappings, of Burkinabes as well as foreigners.
An Australian and a Romanian, abducted in 2015, are still being held hostage by Islamist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which continued into the early hours yesterday