Six Canadians killed in Burkina attacks

Security forces are hunting for any possible surviving gunmen from an attack on a hotel in Burkina Faso that left at least 29 people dead and showed the expanding reach of regional jihadists in west Africa.

Burkina Faso’s Interior Minister Simon Compaore said search security forces were carrying out careful searches, while at the scene of the attack a security cordon was widened on Sunday.

Mike Riddering was sitting in a cafe frequented by westerners across the street from the Splendid Hotel in the capital city of Ouagadougou when gunmen rolled up and opened fire.

The ministry says Burkina Faso authorities are carrying out a formal identification of the victims but because there are so many bodies, the process could take some time.

“Canada strongly condemns the deadly terrorist attacks that took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso”, Trudeau said in a statement, noting that “several people, including six Canadian citizens” were killed in the violence.

The North Africa branch of al Qaida, founded in Algeria, said it carried out the bloodbath even as it was unfolding in a series of statements published and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Ogho Ikhalo of Plan Canada, an global development organization that has been working for decades with children in Burkina Faso, said all staff in the country were safe. She said they shook people by the foot to see if they were alive, and if they were, they shot.

The al-Qaida group claiming responsibility for the carnage released an audio tape titled: “A Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts”.

“Faced with these terrorists and their vile acts, we must mobilise to ensure the appropriate response to put them out of action”, he said.

An Australian couple abducted by suspected Islamist extremists in the West African country of Burkina Faso had been living in the area for 30 years.

Al-Qaeda militants attacked the Splendid Hotel and a the Cappuccino cafe nearby.

French President Francois Hollande led worldwide condemnation of what he described as an “odious and cowardly attack”. However, the nationalities of those killed in the assault were not immediately known.

While many in Burkina Faso and across the region were shocked by the raid, there have been indications that the security situation in the majority Muslim but religiously diverse nation was deteriorating.

The couple, in their 80s and originally from Perth, have lived in Djibo, near Baraboule, since 1972, and work in a volunteer medical clinic which they built, reports said.

Jihadis also hold a third foreigner: a Romanian who was kidnapped in an attack in April.

Ohayon said it was no coincidence such incidents had only happened since Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore was driven from power.