Burkina Faso Attack: Foreigners Killed At luxury Hotel

An Australian couple reportedly kidnapped and held by militants in Burkina Faso have dedicated their lives to providing medical services to people in the remote north of the country, a family spokesperson said on Sunday.

“Recent news from the country indicates an alleged abduction of Ken and Jocelyn on Friday night”, the spokesman said in a statement released through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

At least 29 people many of them foreigners were killed and a further 56 injured after Islamist militants attacked a hotel in the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, popular with foreigners.

The local al-Qaida affiliate known as AQIM claimed responsibility in an online statement as the attack raged, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Belmoktar was a former leader in AQIM before starting his own group, which now has merged back with al Qaida.

Michael Riddering was one of 28 people from 18 different nationalities who were killed in the attack in the capital Ouagadougou which turned into a 12-hour siege starting on Friday evening.

“They would come back and see if the white people were moving and then they would shoot them again”.

An American who died in a terror attack in Burkina Faso moved halfway across the world with his wife to run an orphanage and women’s crisis center.

The victims of the pogrom were said to be having drinks outside and in a popular hotel, before the tragedy struck, as their assailants screamed Allahu akhbar (Arabic for God is great) as gunned them down.

In a message broadcast to the nation, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism. Security forces have freed 126 hostages and killed four attackers on Saturday.

Switzerland’s foreign ministry confirmed that two of its citizens were killed when the jihadists struck a restaurant opposite the four-star hotel where the attackers holed up.

Around 10 bodies were found at the Cappuccino cafe next to the hotel, where customers are believed to have been gunned down in scenes reminiscent of November’s attacks in Paris.

The other two Canadian victims were also from Quebec and were friends of Carrier’s family.

“I am shocked by the terrorist attack in Burkina Faso and by death of Ukrainian family – three adults and child”.