Hotel Attacked in Burkina Faso Capital
A hotel favored by Westerners in Ouagadougou was hit by what officials called a terrorist attack.
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Gunmen from Al Qaeda stormed a luxury hotel frequented by foreigners in Burkina Faso’s capital on Friday night, seizing hostages and killing others while fighting with dozens of security forces who began a counterattack hours later. It was Al Qaeda’s first major attack in this landlocked sub-Saharan country, a former French colony.
Burkina Faso’s interior minister, Simon Compaoré, said Saturday morning that after an overnight battle, security forces had regained control of the Splendid Hotel in the capital, Ouagadougou (pronounced waga-DOO-goo), having killed at least three assailants and freed 126 people. A spokesman for the interior ministry, Abi Ouattara, said 22 people had been killed, not counting the militants killed by security forces.
The attack, claimed by the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb affiliate along with an allied militant group, was at least the fifth time in recent days that armed militants had ambushed unprotected civilians in cities around the world, hitting sites in Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia and Iraq with deadly assaults that underscored the vulnerabilities of soft targets that are difficult to defend.
Witnesses said the attack began when gunmen set off at least one explosion outside the hotel, leaving cars ablaze, and then moved inside and began taking hostages. Hours later in a statement released online, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said its fighters inside the hotel had killed 30 people, calling their operation “revenge against France and the disbelieving West,” according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist media.
France, which maintains a military garrison in Burkina Faso, scrambled to respond to the siege, sending 30 of its soldiers to assist at least 40 from Burkina Faso’s military who massed outside the hotel. Witnesses reported that the forces began a counterassault to retake the hotel early Saturday. One witness, Olympia de Maismont, said that “several hostages had been freed” and that intermittent gunfire could be heard. Later, Rémis Dandjinou, Burkina Faso’s minister of communication, said that 63 people had been freed, 33 of whom had been wounded.
A Defense Department official in Washington said the French had requested surveillance and reconnaissance help from the American military, which has 75 personnel in Burkina Faso, mostly involved in training and advising as well as maintaining a drone base. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said one American military member was “providing advice and assistance” to French forces outside the hotel. No other American military personnel were believed to be directly involved.
Salif Ouedraogo, 28, an agent at the country’s international airport, who lives in an apartment above a nearby restaurant, said he saw the attack begin around 8 p.m. “I heard the first gunshots and so I went to the balcony,” he said. “I saw people who were shooting, and so I quickly got down and put myself on my stomach on the floor.”
“They set off an explosion and they opened fire on the people,” he added. “Then they began taking hostages.”
This is the second major attack on a hotel by Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, known by the acronym AQIM, and another group led by the international terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar in less than two months. In November, the same jihadist organizations claimed responsibility for the attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, Mali’s capital.
Witnesses said members of the security forces arrived en masse later, prompting a gun battle. Witnesses said that three bodies could be seen in the Cafe Cappuccino, connected to the hotel. Some of the wounded were evacuated to Yalgado Ouédraogo hospita.
Tahirou Barry, the culture minister, said in a telephone interview that the security forces had surrounded the hotel, and that witnesses said that four to six attackers were inside with hostages.
“There is a perimeter of at least 500 meters around it; no one can approach,” he said. “They are trying to help the hostages.”
“Once in a while we can hear shooting,” Mr. Barry added. “For the moment, we have no more details on the identity of the shooters, except for the fact that one witness affirmed that one of the assailants proclaimed the name of God — the name of Allah.”
An African airline safety group was holding a meeting at the hotel, and members of the organization, the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar, were in the hotel when the attack began, said Moumouni Barro, a delegate to the meeting.
The nation’s security ministry declared an extended curfew for the night, and a nearby theater was evacuated in the middle of a performance, officials said.
The culture minister said that he could not confirm whether American or French forces were helping with the operation at the hotel, but he added, “It’s clear that we could not do this without our friends from abroad.”
The attack marked an expansion for Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, which is mostly focused in Mali and Algeria and had staged only minor attacks along Burkina Faso’s border until now.
In a speech in December, an AQIM official addressed Muslims in the nation of Burkina Faso, calling upon them to participate in jihad. And on Friday, the group announced that it conducted the strike in cooperation with the group led by Mr. Belmokhtar, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist communications.
Andrew Lebovich, a specialist on political and security issues in the region, said the attack in Burkina Faso showed an evolution in the group’s tactical ability. In the hotel attack in Mali, he said, the attack was carried out only with automatic weapons and grenades. But initial reports said the attackers in Ouagadougou were more sophisticated.
“Their approach is somewhat evolving. If initial reports prove to be true, the Burkina attack involved at least two car bombs,” he said. “It shows a more sophisticated operational plan involving more serious weaponry.”
For years, Burkina Faso had seemed largely immune to the jihadist violence that plagued two of its neighbors, Mali and Niger. That changed in April last year, when a group that later pledged allegiance to the Islamic State burst into a manganese mine in the remote countryside and abducted a Romanian employee. A month later, an Islamic State affiliate based in the Sahara issued a statement saying it was holding the hostage and warning the Romanian government that it would be accountable if it failed to meet demands for his release.
In November, security forces in Burkina Faso arrested 13 people and seized bomb-making materials in the safe house the group was using in the western part of the country, near the border with Mali. Officials said the suspects were planning a “large-scale attack.”
Earlier on Friday, armed men attacked a police command post in the northern village of Tin Abao, killing an officer and a civilian and wounding two policemen, officials said. It was unclear whether the attacks were linked.
The violence struck after months of political turmoil in Burkina Faso.
The presidential vote in November was the country’s first competitive election in decades. About three million people cast ballots, many of them celebrating as they crowded into polling stations to choose Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, a former prime minister, as their leader.
Thibault Bluy reported from Ouagadougou, Dionne Searcey from Dakar, Senegal, and Rukmini Callimachi from New York. Hervé Taoko contributed reporting from
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