Gunfire, explosions in 'terror attack' at Burkina Faso hotel

Yahoo News ^ | January 15, 2016 | AFP

[Jim Robinson]

Ouagadougou (AFP) - Gunshots and explosions were heard coming from one of Ouagadougou's main hotels and a nearby restaurant on Friday night, with a witness saying several people had been killed in what the French embassy called a terrorist attack.

Around 10 vehicles were on fire in the street where the four-star Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino restaurant opposite -- both popular with United Nations staff and westerners -- are located in a busy, central area of Burkina Faso's capital not far from the international airport.

The attack comes less than two months after a jihadist hostage siege at the luxury Radisson Blu Hotel in the Malian capital Bamako in November, in which 20 people died including 14 foreigners.

A Cappuccino staff member, reached by telephone by AFP, said several people had been killed at the restaurant, without being able to give an exact toll.

Witnesses said attackers were still holed up in the 147-room hotel, while sporadic exchanges of fire could be heard between the assailants and security forces.

Three men clad in turbans at one point fired at the scene on Avenue Kwame Nkrumah, one of Ouagadougou's main thoroughfares.

[SkyDancer]

My my, the ROP spreading more joy and happiness.

[PROCON]

Hmm, wonder who could be creating the mayhem?

[Paladin2]

It’s who they are.

[musicman]

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[Travis McGee]

Damn! And I was booked into a four-crown gold-star resort there this weekend!

[Fiddlstix]

Winston Churchill on Islam

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

Winston Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899)

[Cobra64]

Where is this?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I honestly had to google this nation. Never heard of this country before, and I’m good at geography.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

In Africa. Formerly a French territory. Northeast of Liberia.

[FourPeas]

The people of Burkina Faso just can’t catch a break. I don’t know enough about their new government to have any idea if they’ll be successful in fighting terrorism, but I hope they will.

[laconic]

It used to be called “Upper Volta”, had a name change to Burkina Faso, which would seem to be less justified than that of its neighbor country of Benin, which used to be called “Dahomey”.

[Jim Robinson]

Had to google it: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ouagadougou,+Burkina+Faso/@12.3587916,-10.5016988,5z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0xe2e95ecceaa44cd:0x799f67799c743b8b?hl=en

[SkyDancer]

Neither had I. So who goes there for a holiday?

[Steely Tom]

It used to be called "Upper Volta", had a name change to Burkina Faso, which would seem to be less justified than that of its neighbor country of Benin, which used to be called "Dahomey".

Things are so much better in Africa since they got out from under the yoke of colonialism.

[digger48]

According to the article, UN staffers like it.

"the girls are cleaner, the liquor ain't watered down...And you get a kickback."

[Ciexyz]

But....but....the U.N. staffers are there to help them!

[CottonBall]

What country is this in?

[Domangart]

Tribal warefare . Isn't it just grand.

[FourPeas]