Gunmen kill at least 17 in Burkina Faso restaurant

OUAGADOUGOU, Aug. 15 — A group of gunmen attacked a Turkish
restaurant in the center of the capital Burkina Faso on Sunday evening,
leaving at least 17 dead and eight others injured, according to a
government statement.

Authorities said the shooting broke out at the restaurant located on the
Nkrumah Avenue in downtown Ouagadougou around 9 p.m. local time (2100 GMT).
Security forces were dispatched to the scene and blocked the neighborhood.
Policemen were then engaged in a firefight with the attackers. Nearby
residents were quoted by local reports as saying that gunshots and
explosions were continuously heard. The nationalities of the dead remain
unclear, the statement said. Police asked citizens to calm down and stay
home, especially not to go to the city center. Up till now, the blockade
has not been lifted. In January, 2016, terrorists attacked Splendid Hotel,
a luxury hotel and restaurant in the same neighborhood, causing around 30
deaths. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb afterwards claimed responsibility
for the incident on a website titled “Jihad.”A landlocked nation in West
Africa, Burkina Faso has suffered several attacks in recent years.- XINHUA