OUAGADOUGOU: At least 18 people including eight or more foreigners were gunned down in a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso, officials said on Monday, the latest west African attack to target a spot popular with expats.

There has been no claim of responsibility for Sunday night’s attack at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant, which was often packed with foreign nationals who went there to watch football.

Foreign minister Alpha Barry told AFP that the “terrorist” attack in the capital Ouagadougou killed seven locals and at least eight foreigners including one Frenchman; one Canadian woman; male victims from Senegal, Niger, Lebanon and Turkey; and two Kuwaiti women.

Three victims remain unidentified, he said.

Separately, Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said two Canadians were among the victims.

Turkey confirmed that one of its citizens was among the dead, while Paris prosecutors said at least one French national died.

Earlier in Ougadougou, Communications Minister Remis Dandjinou said about ten people had been injured, while security forces had killed two assailants in a counter-assault that went on until morning. It was not clear how many gunmen were involved in the attack.

The security operation “has ended” but searches are continuing in buildings in the surrounding neighbourhood, Dandjinou told reporters. He had said earlier that “some people were held” by the assailants and that “some were released”, but gave no further details.

The restaurant is just 200 metres from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners. That attack was claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

A government statement described the latest deadly shooting as a “terrorist attack”, while President Roch Marc Christian Kabore condemned it as “a despicable attack that has Ouagadougou in mourning”.

A police officer who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity cited witnesses as saying at least two assailants arrived on a motorcycle around 9pm (2100 GMT) armed with Kalashnikovs, and opened fire.

A waiter also said he saw “three men arrive on a 4X4 vehicle around 9:30pm, get off the vehicle and open fire on customers seated on the terrace”.

Sean Smith, senior Africa analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, said the restaurant attack “illustrates that the threat of terrorism now looms over most of the Sahel region”.

“While most attacks in Burkina Faso remain confined to the remote northern regions that border Mali, this incident reiterates that Islamists also have the ability to strike at will in the capital.”

Calls to back anti-terror force

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with President Kabore, his office said, condemning the “terrorist attack” in the former French colony and stressing the “urgent need” to speed up the launch of a five-country anti-jihadist force in the Sahel.

France has its own Barkhane anti-jihadist operation in the region and has been pushing efforts to set up the 5,000-member force, manned by Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, by October.

African Union chief Alpha Conde said the attack “shows the importance of bringing the force into operation” and called on the European Union to find the estimated 400 million euros ($471 million) of extra funding needed.

“We must accelerate the G5 launch so that Africans are on the frontline in defending the security of their citizens and that of expatriates,” he told France 24 television.—AFP

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2017