Skip to main content

20 Killed In Burkina Faso Terror Attack

August 14, 2017

Gunmen opened fire on customers seated outside a restaurant, witnesses said. Foreign nationals are among the dead, but details are still emerging.

Twenty people have been killed and a number wounded in a terror attack in the center of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, the government says.

Gunmen opened fire on customers seated outside a restaurant, witnesses said. Foreign nationals are among the dead, but details are still emerging.

The attack is now over, authorities say, with the two assailants also killed by security forces.

A jihadist attack on a nearby cafe killed 30 people in January last year.

There are fears that the latest attack is the work of one of the affiliates of al-Qaeda that are active in the Sahel region, the BBC’s Alex Duval Smith reports.

Minister of Communication Remis Dandjinou confirmed on Monday that the attack was over, with security forces carrying out checks on neighboring buildings.

The shooting began shortly after 21:00 (GMT) on Sunday on Ouagadougou’s busy Kwame Nkrumah Avenue.

Security forces launched a counter assault at 22:15 and the shooting ended at about 05:00 on Monday.

A Turkish restaurant, the Aziz Istanbul, popular with foreigners, appears to have been at the center of the attack.

One eyewitness told the BBC: “I saw there were multiple trucks or jeeps driving through my street, with… local army/police officers with AK47s, deploying in front of my house.

“I heard a lot of shootings and then I was scared as hell and I went inside. I’ve been hearing quite a bit of shooting.”

Police captain Guy Ye told Associated Press that the attackers had arrived on motorcycles and had begun shooting randomly.

Image

Topics
Terrorism