Ahmed Ouoba, AFP | Burkina Faso gendarmes near the scene of an attack by suspected jihadists in the capital, Ouagadougou, on August 14.

Burkina Faso on Tuesday was observing the second of three days of national mourning declared after two suspected Islamist extremists attacked the Aziz Istanbul Café in Ouagadougou, killing at least 18 people.

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The café was popular with foreigners living and working in the capital. After a several-hour-long gun battle, Burkina Faso's special forces killed the assailants and ended the attack.

“They turned away from me like this and at the same moment they set off a ‘boom’,” one witness told FRANCE 24. “And I panicked and fell down."

The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed the death of at least one French national. Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister Alpha Barry told AFP on Monday that the attack killed seven locals and at least eight foreigners including a Frenchman, a Canadian woman, two Kuwaiti women and male victims from Senegal, Niger, Lebanon and Turkey.

The attack brought back painful memories of the January 2016 attack at another café that left 30 people dead.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Sunday's attack and promised continued support to West African countries in the fight against terror groups.

Click on the video player above to view the full FRANCE 24 report.



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