18 killed, 30 injured in terrorist attack on Ouagadougou Restaurant

By
Aisha Auyo
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Suspected jihadists killed at least 18 people and wounded several during a raid on a restaurant in Burkina Faso’s capital overnight.

Security forces shot dead both attackers and freed people trapped inside the building.

“This is a terrorist attack,” Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou told a news conference on Monday.

He said the toll was provisional because the security operation was still underway.

A witness saw customers running out of the Aziz Istanbul restaurant in central Ouagadougou as police and paramilitary gendarmerie surrounded it amid gunfire.

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 told Reuters TV as she fled the building.

Earlier, authorities had suggested that three assailants had been killed, but the minister later revised down that figure and gave the death toll of victims as 18.

Burkina Faso, like other countries in West Africa, has been targeted sporadically by jihadist groups operating across Africa’s Sahel.

Most attacks have been along its remote northern border region with Mali, which has seen attacks by Islamist militants for more than a decade.

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

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