Burkina Faso attack: Leila Alaoui, Amnesty photographer, dies

When al Qaeda-linked terrorists stormed a hotel and cafe in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Friday evening, they killed an estimated 28 people.

“It is true that a similar incident had occurred recently in Mali, near our country, and many said that Burkina Faso could be targeted by terrorists”, Father Oscar Zoungrana, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Burkina Faso, told Fides news agency.

WorldWatch Monitor reports a total of seven of the 29 people killed were in the West African nation due to their Christian faith. Eight Burkinabes, six Canadians, three Ukrainians and two French people were killed, among others.

An armored vehicle from the Burkina Faso army secures a street outside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 15 January 2016.

Leila Alaoui, 33, whose pictures featured in the New York Times and Vogue magazine, and whose latest Paris art show wound up at the weekend, died of a heart attack shortly before her evacuation after being shot twice in the leg and thorax.

Meanwhile al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb named three gunmen it claimed were involved in the assault.

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. “So we were under gunfire from 7:45 p.m. until 3 a.m. It’s God who saved us because these people had the time to carry out their crime”, he said. “They were looking forward to continuing to working in Burkina Faso and raising their children together”, a statement from Sheltering Wings, the missionary organization that sponsored the orphanage, said.

Neighbouring Benin’s President Thomas Boni Yayi arrived in the capital on Monday to offer his condolences to President Roch Marc Kabore, and said the West African regional bloc ECOWAS would hold an emergency summit to discuss the issue.

“We’re not going to just sit on our hands”.

Edward Bunker, who works for Johns Hopkins as an affiliate, was a guest at the Splendid Hotel during the attack.

Both were parked outside the Cappucino cafe, opposite the luxury Splendid Hotel, one of the militants’ targets, the group said.

France, which considers AQIM a more immediate threat, has been carrying on a quiet, mostly effective campaign to identify and disrupt the group ever since beating back their advance by in northern Mali two years ago.