Ouagadougou: At least 20 people have been killed and another 15 wounded in an ongoing Al-Qaeda attack on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso popular with United Nations staff and westerners.
Gunshots and explosions rocked Ouagadougou’s four-star Splendid hotel and the nearby “Cappuccino” restaurant last night as Burkinabe forces prepared an assault to rescue hostages still trapped inside the hotel.
Officials said French forces could join a counter-assault on the hotel, where assailants were apparently still holed up more than three hours after the attack began.
The attack comes less than two months after a jihadist hostage siege at the luxury Radisson Blu Hotel in the Malian capital Bamako in November, in which 20 people died including 14 foreigners.
