Alwaght- At least 16 people were killed when masked gunmen targeted the French embassy in Burkina Faso and the west African country’s army headquarters on Friday.
Eight members of the Burkina Faso security forces, supported by French forces, were killed as they defended the targets in the capital, Ouagadougou, state television reported. About 80 people were wounded and at least eight attackers died. No French casualties were reported.
It was not immediately clear how many assailants took part in what are believed to have been coordinated strikes. Burkina Faso's communications minister said eight Takfiri terrorists died.
Remy Danjuinou, Burkina Faso's communications minister, said five of the terrorists were killed near the embassy and three others near the army head of state offices. He said that the death toll for the soldiers is likely to climb, as many others were seriously wounded.
The bloodshed began when five of the gunmen jumped out of a pickup truck in the city center, set fire to the truck and opened fire on passers-by. They then ran towards the French embassy, according to witnesses who saw the attack from the state television offices facing the embassy.
Around the same time, at least one explosion occurred near the army headquarters and the French cultural center, located about half a mile from the embassy.
Burkina Faso is one of a number of countries in the Sahel - an area traversing Central and West Africa - battling armed groups in the region.
Last month, the European Union announced it would double its funding for the G5 Sahel military force, which aims at combatting armed groups across the region. The force is made up of soldiers from Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad.
France, the former colonial power, has deployed 4,000 troops to ostensibly fight Takfiri terrorists in the impoverished Sahel region on the southern rim of the Sahara alongside soldiers other G5 countries.
