16th January, 2016
At least 20 people have been killed and another 15 wounded in an ongoing assault on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso on Friday night, a hospital chief told AFP.
“For the dead, we do not have a precise figure, but there are at least 20 dead,” said Robert Sangare, the head of Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.
“We have had at least 15 wounded with bullet wounds and others who suffered injuries during the panic to escape.”
Meanwhile, an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Africa has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack on a restaurant in Ouagadougou in which a witness said several people were killed, according to a US-based jihadist monitoring group.
The “mujahideen brothers” of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb “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,” the SITE Intelligence Group quoted an Arabic-language AQIM message as saying.
“O Allah, make it successful, and O nation of the Cross, wait for the glad tidings of what will harm you,” the message added.
A Burkina Faso official said there were victims in the ongoing attack as well as hostages, and that the government was planning a counter-assault that may include foreign forces.
Friday’s attack occurred in the Cappuccino restaurant across from the Splendid hotel, located in a busy central area of the city. Both establishments are popular with United Nations staff and westerners.
Several vehicles were on fire in the street near the four-star hotel.
According to SITE, the message said the attackers were members of the al-Murabitun Battalion based in Mali and run by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a jihadist leader who has been known as “The Uncatchable” and is believed responsible for the 2013 Algeria gas field assault.