French ambassador gives detail on Burkina hotel attack

The French Ambassador to Burkina Faso Gilles Thibault has detailed how security forces ended a 15 hour attack over the weekend.

Speaking to journalists, Thibault said French troops together with Burkinabe special forces worked hand in hand to end the hotel attack in Ouagadougou that left at least 28 people dead.

“At this stage, about thirty have died. I received some conflicting information on the number of deaths. There are still about thirty injured people being hospitalised, and about 180 people were evacuated from the Splendid Hotel and Cappuccino. We can now say that the operation itself is complete. This has been the case since Saturday morning,” Thibault said.

The ambassador also revealed that it was the French troops that killed the assailants.

“There was US air military support by drone, but there were no American soldiers engaged on the ground. It is the Burkinabes, aided by a French detachment, that carried out the job,” he explained.

Merci à nos militaires, personnels médicaux, pompiers…, à tous ceux qui au #Burkina et partout luttent contre la barbarie et pour la paix

— Gilles Thibault (@G_Thibault_Fr) January 17, 2016

The attack carried out on Friday night comes days after a new Burkinabe government took office. In response, the government condemned the attack and declared three days of national mourning.