Brilio.net/en - Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb took responsibility of the attack on a caf and siege of a luxury hotel in Burkina Faso on Friday January 15th. Six gunmen opened fire on unsuspecting victims at the caf before they took refuge at the Splendid Hotel, where they held several hostages. Both of the locations are popular with foreigners and UN workers. The siege lasted several hours and left 30 people dead; of those at least three were attackers. "Everyone was panicked and was lying down on the floor. There was blood everywhere, they were shooting at people at point blank," said Yannick Sawadogo, who survived the siege. AQIM said the assault was carried out by the al-Murabitoun battalion led by Algerian jihadi Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
After several hours of assessing the perimeter, security forces and French special forcers based in West Africa stormed the building and were able to rescue 126 hostages, of which half had to be hospitalized, including Amnesty International photographer Leila Alaoui. The French-Moroccan activist was carrying out work for a project focusing on womens rights. She died upon a heart attack she sustained in the hospital after being taken from the hotel in the capital of Ouagadougou.
Many of the victims of the assault were foreigners. These included six Canadians who were doing humanitarian work, two Swiss nationals who had been in the caf when it came under attack, and two French nationals and a US missionary. Another 67-year-old Dutch volunteer lost his life due to the terror attacks and a family from Ukraine, including a 9-year-old child.
The attack is a blow to the West African country, where just in November the first president was elected after three decades of autocratic rule. The former Prime Minister Roch Marc Christian Kabor won the vote with 53% of the popular vote.
Burkina Faso, a former French colony, is considered an ally in the fight against terrorism, especially al Qaeda, and a strategic ally in the fight against neighboring terrorist group Boko Haram.
According to the BCC, three of the suspects are still at large.
(Reported by: Ivana Lucic)
(brl/tis)
