Three Gunmen On Run After Burkina Faso Attack

The assault at a hotel in the capital, Ouagadougou, was claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Eight Burkinabes, six Canadians, three Ukrainians and three French citizens were among the dead.

The mother of one of the Canadians killed in a terror attack in Burkina Faso has made a desperate plea for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep up Canadian airstrikes against ISIL. The congregation, founded in 1892 in St-Damien-de-Buckland, has had a mission in Burkina Faso since 1955.

Leila Alaoui, the French-Moroccan photographer and video artist known for her poetic and unsentimental images of daily life in the Mediterranean and Middle East, died last night from injuries sustained during last week’s terrorist attack in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso.

In a message to the nation, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism.

He did not give more details, citing the ongoing investigation.

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

Amnesty International said Tuesday that its driver, Mahamadi Ouedraogo, was killed in his auto.

“I want Justin Trudeau, instead of condemning (the attacks) exclusively with words and his little mouth, to do it with airplanes”, Camille Carrier, mother of 37-year-old victim Maude Carrier, told Montreal’s 98.5 FM on Monday.

Riddering was “a wonderful, godly man” who managed to find spare time to help teams of volunteers from other organizations who dug wells for local residents, said John Anderson, a board member of Sheltering Wings, Riddering’s charity.

“No one was prepared for these attacks”, he said.

Burkina Foreign Affairs Minister Alpha Barry and Minister of Security Compaore met with diplomats Tuesday, reassuring them that Burkina Faso will remain a safe place despite the attack.

Alaoui was in Burkina Faso for a photography assignment on women’s rights.

Until recently, Burkina Faso had largely escaped the tide of Islamist violence spreading in the restive Sahel region and the hotel assault will heighten fears that jihadi groups are casting their net wider in West Africa.

For years, Islamic militants have used northern Mali as a base, but over the past year they have staged a number of attacks in other parts of the country.