RCMP to help with Burkina Faso aftermath

Aloui’s passing raised the death toll in Friday’s Burkina Faso attack to 30, according to a Burkinabe prosecutor speaking to state media.

Burkinabe troops fanned out across the capital, Ouagadougou, with security stepped up at key sites as visiting Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi pledged that west African nations would fight back against a mounting terrorist threat.

More than 126 people were held hostage in the hotel before Burkina Faso and French security forces launched a counter-attack leading to the deaths of three of the gunmen.

According to Quartz, the attack in Burkina Faso is the second time in a couple months that militants launched an assault directed at an establishment popular with foreigners.

“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.

Born in 1982 in Paris, Alaoui was in Burkina Faso on assignment for Amnesty International, the international aid group, the New York Times reported.

The attack was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadi attacks that have hit neighboring Mali since 2012.

Tributes poured in Tuesday for well-known Franco-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, who was severely wounded in the attack and late Monday became the 30th and latest victim of the bloody attack.

A nine-year-old Italian boy and his mother were killed in the assault on Cappuccino, the restaurant attacked opposite the Splendid Hotel, Italy’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.

“Of the six assailants, three were killed and three others are still being sought”, Valls said in remarks before the French parliament, adding that the attack on Ouagadougou was a reminder of a similar attack in Paris in November. The attackers then assauled the Splendid Hotel next door.

He says departmental resources in Ottawa and overseas will be used to help repatriate the victims as fast as possible.

French President Francois Hollande spoke by phone on Monday with his Burkinabe counterpart Roch Marc Christian Kabore, pledging “any assistance needed… for a proper investigation of these heinous acts”.

“We commit ourselves to work with the countries within our ECOWAS region to ensure that our citizens can live in peace and security”, the statement said.

Both men are Tuaregs, a nomadic people based in Saharan parts of Niger, Mali and Algeria.