TERROR ATTACK: 30 FEARED DEAD IN BURKINA FASO
The local media reports said, within minutes, the attackers had arrived the Prime Minister’s office, the French Embassy and the Army Headquarters and fired rockets at the buildings, while many soldiers were reportedly killed in the gun battle that followed.
A Burkinade government spokesman, Galip Some told local media that the Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba suffered no injury in the attack, adding further, “the Prime Minister’s office is untouched and is intact”
The government image maker said in the government’s first statement since the attack that authorities “cannot ascribe any motive” to the attackers “since we are not in their mind.”
As at the time of this report, Penpushing learnt that, Burkinabe soldiers have l contained the attack and have taken charge of the streets of Ouagadougou. However, unconfirmed report has it that the attackers were said to have launched the attack to celebrate its first anniversary of the group.
The group is said to have an objective to spread the caliphate and introduce Sharia, and it is recalled that when it was formed last year, it announced its footprint to cover only Libya, Mali and Niger, but Friday’s attack in Burkina Faso introduced a new dimension to the group’s capabilities.
Penpushing learnt that, the country had earlier contributed troops to join about 4,000 French troops who had been battling insurgents in the Sahel region on the southern rim of the Sahara.
The Jamat Nosrate El Islam, which boasts of over 500 members, is also said to be a fusion of splinter forces from Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar Dime, Katiba Macina, and Al-Maurabitoune, all operating across the African Sahel.
Penpushing gathered that, Its known leaders include Mokhtar Belmoktar an Algerian, now believed dead, Amadou Koufa, a Malian Fulani, and Abdul Hassan Ansari, a Malian Tuareg.
