(Newswire.net — January 16, 2016) –Early Saturday morning, security forces from France and Burkina Faso launched a counter attack and freed the hostages. An estimated number of 126 hostages were released, including Burkina Faso’s minister of public service, labour and social security, Clement Sawadogo.
At 4am local time, Remis Dandjinou, the country’s communications minister, reported on Twitter that minister Sawadogo was taken to a hospital.
During the fight against the attack, a policeman was killed when he tried to enter the Splendid hotel and was shot by the attackers.
During the release of the hostages, security forces killed 4 members of Al Qaeda, an Islamic terrorist group which has claimed responsibility for the organization and execution of the attacks at the luxury Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, most of whose guests are foreigners, the Interior Minister Simon Compaore explained.
There is no precise information on exactly how many people were at the hotel neither on the number of those who died in the attack but more than 30 people have been hospitalised, the New York Times reported.
The director of Ouagadougou’s university hospital center, Robert Sangare, said that at least 20 people were killed, but “we do not have a precise figure,” he said.
Responsibility for the attack was taken by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), SITE ntelligence Group reported.
NBC News and Reuters have said that, Rita Katz, director of SITE, reported that in December of 2015, the ultra-hardline AQIM group called for Muslims in several countries, including Burkina Faso, to “wake up for Jihad.”
The attack on the capital of Burkina Faso had the terrorist group divide into two and attack at the same time, one at the Splendid hotel while the other at the Cappuccino restaurant.
A witness, journalist Jean-Baptiste Dipama, saw six attackers split up in two groups and drive away in seperate vehicles with Niger license plates. One group went to the Splendid hotel and the other to the restaurant, Cappuccino, which is nearby, explained the eyewitness.
French ambassador Gilles Thibault said on Twitter that the attack on the hotel started at 2am on Saturday.
AFP reports that French forces provided assistance to the forces of Burkina Faso, as was said in a statement from the president’s office.
Francois Hollande, President of the French Republic, condemned the “heinous and cowardly attack” by the Islamist group at the restaurant and hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso.
In a statement made by Hollande, he expressed his full support to the President of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
The US has also strongly condemned the attack. “We extend our deepest condolences to families of victims of this senseless assault,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield wrote on Twitter.
Burkina Faso is a country in West Africa, diverse in religious terms, and whose population is approximately 60% Muslim. This Islamic terrorist attack is the first one in Burkina Faso but not in the bordering states who have seen attacks in the last few years.