Two Canadians killed in Burkina Faso attack

Officials have identified the two Canadians killed in an attack at a popular restaurant in Burkina Faso as Tammy Chen and Bilel Diffalah.

Chen was a former teacher from Toronto who was pursuing her doctorate at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. Diffalah was a volunteer with a Quebec-based anti-poverty group and was in Ouagadougou as a hygiene and biosecurity advisor.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland expressed her heartfelt condolences and says the two Canadians were among 18 people killed in the attack.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement today on the attack saying, “I am deeply saddened that 18 people, including Canadians Tammy Chen and Bilel Diffalah, were killed during a terrorist attack on a popular restaurant in downtown Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Those lost include women and children, and people of many nationalities and backgrounds, who should have felt safe gathering together to share a meal.”

Suspected extremists opened fire at a Turkish restaurant in the West African country’s capital of Ouagadougou late Sunday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the violence, and three members of Burkina Faso’s security force were wounded during the seven-hour assault.

Government spokesperson Remy Danguinou says the dead are “mainly women and children”.

This is the second attack in the last two years. In January 2016, an attack at a nearby cafe killed 30 people including six people from Quebec.