Hostages Held by Militants in Burkina Faso Capital

Gunmen stormed a hotel in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou and are holding hostages in the Splendid Hotel. The hotel is popular among foreigners and United Nations staff and is often utilised by French troops and Operation Barkhane, a force based in Chad to combat Islamist militants across west Africa’s arid Sahel region. Local reporter Olympia de Maismont said that the military had surrounded the building following reports of gunfire and explosions. Robert Sangare, a hospital director in the city, informed BBC that at least twenty people had died and fifteen more had been wounded.

Witnesses said that three or four gunmen had initially entered the Cappuccino café near the hotel.   One employee told Agence France Presse that “several people” had been killed there. The gunmen also burnt cars outside the hotel, fired shots into the air to drive back crowds and stormed the hotel at 8pm local time on Friday night. The arrival of security forces prompted an intense exchange of gunfire. Earlier, the Ministry of Defence issued a statement after 20 armed men killed a gendarme and a civilian in an attack on the village of Tin Abao, in northern Burkina Faso. It is unclear whether the attack was by militants or whether the two incidents are linked.

The monitoring organisation SITE Intelligence Group stated that the attacks have been claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. SITE stated that the Islamic Maghreb posted on an encrypted phone app, “God is Great! Your mujahideen brothers in the Organization of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the al-Murabitoon Battalion, 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 our religion”. Witnesses said the attackers wore turbans and were “light-skinned” and spoke a language not native to Burkina Faso, which is a former French colony in West Africa.

Foreign Minister Alpha Barry said security forces would launch a raid to free hostages and were, “not ruling out possible support of foreign forces including French Special Forces”. France’s ambassador to Burkina Faso, Gilles Thibault, stated on Twitter that a curfew is in place from 11.00pm until 06:00am local time. The French Foreign Ministry in Paris is assessing the situation as it has over 200 Special Forces personnel in Burkina Faso. The United States embassy in Ouagadougou says that it is aware of the incident and is “closely following” the situation.

Security forces are concerned about the unfolding situation as it mirrors events that occurred in Mali in November. Gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in the Malian capital, Bamako, and took at least 170 people hostage early in the morning. The majority of the hostages were released following a nine-hour standoff with Malian and UN soldiers. However, two attackers and nine hostages from Russia, China and the United States were killed. Islamist militants have also staged attacks in a number of west African states bordering the Sahel in recent years.

This attack occurred during a period of political transition following the election of President Roch Marc Christian Kabore in November. His election marked the end of a transitional period following the overthrow of Blaise Compaore in 2014 and a subsequent coupe. “We are still in a context of political fragility, so I think the timing of this attack is meaningful”, Cynthia Ohayon, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told BBC, “The country has long borders with Mali and Niger, and we know there are armed groups present on the border, so this was probably something we had coming”.

 

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