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Burkina Faso And Mali To Coordinate Forces After Deadly Attacks

Burkina Faso And Mali To Coordinate Forces After Deadly Attacks

By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Nadoun Coulibaly

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – Burkina Faso and Mali have agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamic militants in West Africa by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols following two deadly and well-coordinated attacks in the region.

Their prime ministers met on Sunday, two days after al Qaeda militants seized the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, opened fire on a restaurant and attacked another hotel nearby, killing at least 28 people from at least seven countries, and wounding 50 other people.

The assault, claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), follows a similar raid in November on a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, which killed 20 people, including citizens of Russia, China and the United States.

In a statement on the Burkina Faso assault that was reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, AQIM said: “This blessed operation is but a drop in the sea of global jihad.”

The militant group identified three attackers and called the targeted hotel and surrounding areas “one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent.”

The exact details of the cooperation between Burkina Faso and Mali were not immediately clear, but the patrols and intelligence sharing mark an intent by the two countries to prevent the spread of militancy as AQIM and others expand operations in the region beyond their usual reach.

For years, Islamic militants have used northern Mali as a base, but over the past year they have staged a number of attacks in other parts of the country. Burkina Faso’s authorities are now concerned that its long desert border with Mali could become a transit point for militants.

“There is a very strong political will on the part of the two states to combine our efforts to fight terrorism,” said Burkina Faso’s prime minister, Paul Kaba Thieba.

Thieba and his Malian counterpart Modibo Keita visited the outside of the Splendid Hotel on Sunday, where bullet holes and a charred exterior offered reminders of Friday evening’s attack.

Tight security was in place around the hotel. Inside, Burkinabe and French security officials were conducting an investigation.

Security forces in Burkina Faso retook the 146-room hotel on Saturday after firefights with militants, at least three of whom were killed. Survivors said the militants targeted white victims at the hotel and at the restaurant, both of which were popular among westerners.

According to provisional figures from the Burkinabe government, among the dead were eight Burkinabes, four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two Portuguese, two French, two Swiss and one Dutch citizen. Seven bodies are yet to be identified, and the list is subject to change. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said six Canadians had been killed.

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. The boy, Michel Santomenna, and his mother were the son and wife of the restaurant owner, Gaetano Santomenna. She was not Italian and has not yet been named.

“Italy will continue to work to ensure that the international community remains united and intensifies its efforts to fight the terrorist threat, which once again showed its most inhuman and cruel face by targeting innocent civilians,” it said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome and Peter Cooney in Washington; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Chris Reese)

Photo: A soldiers stands guard in front of Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, January 17, 2016, a day after security forces retook the hotel from al Qaeda fighters who seized it in an assault that killed two dozen people from at least 18 countries and marked a major escalation of Islamist militancy in West Africa. REUTERS/Joe Penney

Burkina Hotel Retaken From Al Qaeda Fighters, But Dozens Dead

Burkina Hotel Retaken From Al Qaeda Fighters, But Dozens Dead

By Mathieu Bonkoungou and Nadoun Coulibaly

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) — Security forces in Burkina Faso retook a hotel in the capital on Saturday a day after al Qaeda fighters seized it in an assault that killed at least 28 people from at least 18 countries and marked a major escalation of Islamist militancy in West Africa.

Until Friday’s attack, the landlocked nation, an ally of Western governments against jihadist groups in the arid reaches of the southern Sahara, had largely been spared the violence that has plagued its neighbors.

The assault follows a similar raid in November on a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako which killed 20 people, including citizens of Russia, China and the United States.

The Ouagadougou assault, claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), marked an expansion of operations for Islamist militants who are stepping up their activities, echoing the growth of Islamic State in the Middle East.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said 28 people were killed in the 146-room Splendid Hotel, in the Cappuccino restaurant across the street and at a second nearby hotel, the Hotel Yibi, according to an initial death toll.

Speaking on state-run television, Kabore said 156 hostages had been freed by the security operation to retake the area, while around 50 civilians had been wounded. Four members of the security forces, including one French soldier were also wounded.

“Faced with these terrorists and their vile acts, we must mobilize to ensure the appropriate response to put them out of action,” Kabore said.

“We will emerge victorious from this war, which has been imposed upon our people and all other people of the world who want peace and freedom,” he said, adding that the nation would observe three days of mourning from Sunday.

Authorities had earlier said that victims of 18 different nationalities were killed in the attack which targeted an area popular with Westerners and French soldiers based in Burkina Faso.

Burkina officials gave no further details of the victims, but the French government announced on Saturday that two French citizens were among the dead. Paris pledged to send forensic experts to help investigate the attack, and a French court opened an investigation for murder and attempted murder.

Six Canadians died in the assault, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. Switzerland lost two citizens and the Netherlands one, the two nations’ foreign ministries announced.

“THEY KEPT COMING BACK”

One Cappuccino survivor said diners at first mistook the gunfire and explosions which erupted at around 8:30 p.m. (2030 GMT) on Friday for firecrackers before two gunmen, dressed all in black and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles, burst in firing indiscriminately.

“We heard shots, grenades, detonations. It was echoing and extremely loud. It went on for a long time,” the survivor, a Slovenian social anthropologist told Reuters.

“They kept coming back and forth into Cappuccino. You’d think it was over, then they’d come back and shoot more people. They would come back and see if the white people were moving and then they would shoot them again,” she said.

Another survivor, a French architect called Ludovic who was at an outdoor bar near Cappuccino when the attacks started, said he saw three assailants singling out white victims before running into the Splendid Hotel.

Kabore said that three attackers were killed by security forces. One senior gendarme officer described them as an “Arab” and two “black Africans”. Some security sources had said a fourth attacker was also killed.

Separately, he said that two Australians had been kidnapped overnight in the north near the border with Mali, where they had lived since 1972 running a clinic.

Burkina Faso’s security ministry had earlier erroneously said they were from Austria. It was not clear if there was a link to the hotel attack.

NO SURPRISE

The attackers torched cars and fired in the air to drive people back on Friday before entering the Splendid Hotel and taking hostages.

French and U.S. military personnel backed up Burkina Faso security forces when they launched their operation to reclaim the Splendid Hotel in the early hours of Saturday.

France normally has up to 200 special forces troops in the country as part of a regional anti-militant operation.

While many in Burkina Faso and across the region were shocked by the raid, there have been indications that the security situation in the majority Muslim but religiously diverse nation was deteriorating.

“There have been warning signs and if there is an element of surprise it is that this did not come earlier,” said Cynthia Ohayon, West Africa analyst at International Crisis Group.

Ohayon said it was no coincidence such incidents had only happened since Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore was driven from power. The longtime leader’s ouster likely ended a convenient relationship between Burkina Faso and militants that had, until then, protected the country, she said.

“Compaore had high connections with rebel and Islamist groups, and he helped to free hostages while some group members had houses in Ouagadougou,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Abidjan, Emma Farge and Makini Brice in Dakar, Shadia Nasralla in Vienna, and Leigh Thomas in Paris; Writing by Joe Bavier and Ed Cropley; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Photo: A view shows vehicles on fire outside Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in this still image taken from a video January 15, 2016, during a siege by Islamist gunmen. REUTERS/Reuters TV