Mali and Burkina Faso join forces against attackers

Michael James Riddering was one of 28 people killed when terrorists opened fire at a cafe and a hotel in the capital, Ouagadougou.

“This attack against them is also an attack on us all”. “We will react and respond”, he said, speaking on behalf of the 15 regional nations.

“The question is whose turn is it next”, he added.

“We will never accept to fold in front of terrorists”.

Forensic experts from France and Burkina Faso were on Monday sifting through the wreckage of the hotel for clues about the attack.

At least 14 or 15 foreigners, including a nine-year-old, and seven or eight Burkinabes were among the dead, according to differing tolls given by the government and the public prosecutor.

“We know it is just going to be different from now on”, said Ousmane Sawadogo, a cell-phone seller some 200 meters (218 yards) from the Splendid Hotel which was attacked Friday night.

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

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said it carried out the attack in the West African nation, monitors said.

 Al-Mourabitoun was once a breakaway group from AQIM, but now relations have been restored between the two militant organisations.

“She praised the assistance provided to Leila by the Moroccan embassy in Ouagadougou, pointing out that Morocco’s ambassador regularly came to her bedside while Leila came to Burkina Faso as a French citizen”.

The statement, which references the death of an American missionary, Michael Riddering, in the massacre, comes as Burkina Faso began observing three days of national mourning following the attack on a hotel and a nearby cafe.

“People are afraid. Anyone who’s not afraid isn’t normal – this is guys with guns”, said Souleymane Ouedraogo, who lives near the scene of the violence.

A French police officer photographs burned vehicles outside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, January 17, 2016.

Burkina Faso’s President Roch Kabore has announced the rescue of around 150 hostages. We are in an asymmetric war.

Witnesses said security forces waited hours before taking action against the attackers, with the first on scene poorly equipped.

The West Australian couple, aged in their 80s, moved to Burkina Faso in 1972 to set up a medical clinic in the town of Djibo in the country’s north.