Burkina Faso Attack: Gunmen Kill 17 in Restaurant

Local Editor

At least 17 people had been killed and 8 others wounded as suspected Takfiri extremists opened fire in a restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital, the communications minister said, as security forces sought to free people still trapped inside on Monday.

Police and paramilitary gendarmerie surrounded the Aziz Istanbul restaurant in central Ouagadougou amid gunfire.

"This is a terrorist attack," Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou told a news conference. He said the toll was provisional because the security operation was still underway.

Burkina Faso security forces killed three suspected extremists but there were still people trapped inside the building, he said later on state TV.

A woman said she was in the restaurant celebrating her brother's birthday when the shooting started.

"I just ran but my brother was left inside," the woman said as she fled the building.

Burkina Faso, like other countries in West Africa, has been targeted sporadically by Takfiri groups operating across Africa's Sahel. Most attacks had been along its remote northern border region with Mali, which has seen attacks by Takfiri militants for more than a decade.

Thirty people were killed when gunmen attacked a restaurant and hotel in Ouagadougou in January 2016 in an incident claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM].

AQIM and related extremist groups were largely confined to the Sahara desert until they hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in Mali in 2012 and swept south. French forces intervened to prevent them taking Mali's capital, Bamako, the following year, but they have since gradually expanded their reach, launching high-profile attacks on Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

A new al-Qaeda-linked alliance of Malian extremist groups claimed an attack in June that killed at least five people at a luxury Mali resort popular with Western expatriates just outside Bamako.

African nations launched a new multinational military force to tackle militants in the Sahel last month, but it won't be operational until later this year and faces a budget shortfall.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team