Africa: 17 dead in Burkina Faso cafe attack

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida.

17 persons have died in an attack by gunmen on a Turkish restaurant, The attack was carried out on Sunday in the Burkina Faso, a West African country that has seen a surge in violence by Islamic extremists over the past few years.

It may be recalled that a cafe had been attacked in January 2016 in which 30 persons had died. The police suspect this incident to be the handiwork of jihadis.

Security forces arrived at the scene with armored vehicles after reports of shots fired near an upscale restaurant in Ouagadougou.

Police spokesman Capt. Guy Ye told The Associated Press the target of the attack was a Turkish restaurant known as Aziz Istanbul.

Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It shares a northern border with Mali, which has long battled Islamic extremists.

The three attackers in the 2016 massacre were of foreign origin, according to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility in the aftermath along with the jihadist group known as Al Mourabitoun. But the terror threat in Burkina Faso is increasingly homegrown, experts say.

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