Three Burkina Faso attack suspects still at large: French PM

A source close to the investigation said 20 people were arrested on Sunday and Monday in connection with the attack overnight Friday which left 29 people dead, around half of them foreigners.

At least 14 foreigners – four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two French nationals, two Portuguese, two Swiss and a Dutch person – were killed in the hotel attack, according to a government toll.

France’s prime minister said three attackers remain at large Wednesday following the attacks in Burkina Faso’s capital, though authorities there insist that all those who carried out the assault had been shot dead.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on Monday named three gunmen involved in the assault. “He will be sorely missed”, the statement said.

Her latest show at Paris’ European Photography House featured portraits of Moroccan men and women in traditional clothes, the result of what she said was “a road trip across rural Morocco” using a mobile studio to preserve “a visual archive of Morocco’s traditions and aesthetic universe”. The boastful message then went on to say that the attack was a message “written by the heroes of Islam with their blood and body parts”, according to The New York Times.

Mahamadi and Leila were parked outside the Cappucino café in Ouagadougou, opposite the Hotel Splendid when the attack occurred. “We wanted to work with her because of her talent, and her passion for helping women, girls and (marginalized) people tell their own stories and claim their rights”, Amnesty said. In the end, none of the 30 people who were killed were at the hotel.

Alaoui was shot twice, in the leg and thorax, when gunmen from the North African affiliate of Al Qaeda opened fire at the Hotel Splendid and the nearby Cappuccino Cafe.

“Three were killed and three are still being sought”, he said.

In the statement, AQIM identified the three attackers as Al Battar Al Ansari, Abu Muhammad Al Buqali Al Ansari and Ahmed Al Fulani Al Ansari, according to Reuters.

Questions about compensation, funerals and an eventual monument to the victims were also discussed, the relatives said. Burkina Faso also announced a joint effort with neighboring Mali in the fight against jihadi elements in the West African region.

The attack, which began around 7:30 p.m. Friday, was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadist attacks that have destabilized neighbouring Mali since 2012.

Adam Barratt, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, says the department’s priority is the families of the victims.

Missionaries and humanitarians from the US and Canada lost their lives in terrorist attacks in Africa and Indonesia last week.