A court in Burkina Faso has sentenced two men to life imprisonment for their roles in the 2017 attack on the Aziz Istanbul restaurant in Ouagadougou, where 19 people were killed. The victims included 10 Burkinabes and nine foreigners.
The assailants, who stormed the popular Turkish eatery on the capital’s main avenue, were killed during a counter-assault by security forces. The two convicted individuals were apprehended in 2018 following an extensive investigation.
The attack was part of a broader wave of violence targeting locations frequented by expatriates, including a 2016 hotel attack that claimed 30 lives and a 2018 assault on the army headquarters and French embassy, resulting in eight soldiers’ deaths.
Prosecutor Lafama Prosper Thiombiano revealed plans to prosecute eight additional suspects linked to the 2018 attacks, though no trial date has been announced.
Burkina Faso remains plagued by ongoing violence, with nearly two million people displaced and over 26,000 lives lost since 2015, according to data from ACLED.
