Three Burkina Faso hotel attack suspects still at large, French PM says

On Tuesday, authorities in Burkina Faso also released new details on how they ultimately killed the three men who were part of the North Africa branch of al Qaeda, working in connection with Algerian jihadi Moktar Belmoktar and his forces.

More than 126 people were held hostage in the hotel before Burkina Faso and French security forces launched a counter-attack leading to the deaths of three of the gunmen.

In both Mali and Burkina Faso cases, the militant group Al Qaeda and the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility.

The three gunmen were identified in the statement as Battar al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-Ansari.

Valls noted that the African democracies have become prime targets of the Islamist jihadists.

The group says he was waiting for the group in a cafe Friday in the capital of Ouagadougou when terrorists struck, taking his life.

The attack was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadi attacks that have hit neighboring Mali since 2012.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who was elected in November, said the Burkinabé people were in shock from the attack.

A nine-year-old Italian boy and his mother were killed in the assault on Cappuccino, the restaurant attacked opposite the Splendid Hotel, Italy’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.

As for Riddering, the group says his brother Jeff plans to travel to Burkina Faso to officiate a memorial service.

The Franco-Moroccan artist and photographer Leila Alaoui, seriously wounded by gunfire, died Monday in Ouagadougou, after succumbing to her wounds.

Within 30 minutes the president of Burkina Faso had asked the French ambassador for help, according to a French official who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said six Canadians had been killed.

Patrols and check points have been set up on main roads around the country, and security personnel has been increased, especially in areas of the country where there are foreigners, Compaore said. “We were trained for this”, said a gendarme military police source.

In a reminder of the fragile security situation, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped on Friday in Burkina Faso’s northern Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali.