Jihadi Militants Take Fight to French in Burkina Faso

Blog Post: Jihadi Militants Take Fight to French in Burkina Faso

On the evening of January 15, 2016, al-Qaeda affiliated jihadists launched an assault on a hotel and café targeting the Cappuccino Café, and Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougo.

The four attackers, two of whom were women, entered the hotel, and seizing hostages, leading to a   fifteen hour standoff between local Burkina Faso authorities aided by French gendarmes. The aftermath of the incident would leave 28 dead, 56wounded, one hundred twenty six hostages freed, and a country coming to grips that the jihadists have declared war on anyone not in accordance to Sharia.

The Splendid Hotel, was a popular destination for westerners and United Nations staff. It is also sometimes used by French troops taking part in Operation Barkhane, a forced based in Chad to combat Islamist militants across West Africa’s Sahel region.

Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country, for years had been mostly spared from the violence carried out by Islamic extremists who were abducting foreigners for ransom in Mali and Niger. It saw its first kidnappings this past April when a Romanian tourist was abducted.

The terrorists responsible for the attack were an affiliate of the as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) known as Al Mourabitoun. This was the same group responsible for the Radisson Blu Hotel attacks this past November in Bamako, Mali, and is led by long time al-Qaeda associate Moktar Belmoktar. Belmoktar is known for orchestrating coordinated attacks and hostage takings, including the In Amenas gas facility attack in Algeria in 2013.

On January 6, 2016, a program entitled “From the Desert’s Depth,” was aired on the AQIM’s media network. It featured a Malian fighter named Abu Basir al-Barami who was recently released from a Mali prison. In the course of the documentary he urged Mali Muslims to take up the “fight against the French infiltrators”.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emerged out of Algeria’s Civil War in the early 1990s. Since 2004 the group has been led by Abdelmalek Droukdel, a trained engineer and explosives expert. Adbelmalek Droukdel has openly called on all Muslims in the region to reject foreign intervention.

This group officially joined al-Qaeda on September 11, 2006, and were previously known as the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (SGPC). The objectives of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are ridding North Africa of western influence, overthrowing governments deemed apostate, and installing regimes based on Sharia.

France has a long history as the regions heavyweight and its government continues to provide political and military support to regimes facing jihadists’ threats. Currently France has 3,000 troops spread over five countries throughout Africa including: Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger.