Burkina Faso

A group of Islamic terrorists opened fire on a customs post in southern Burkina Faso Friday, slaying a missionary priest as well as four customs officials, Vatican News reported Saturday.

Contents: Al-Qaeda linked JNIM attacks two peacekeeper camps in Timbuktu, Mali; Canada debates whether there’s any point to a peacekeeping force; Thousands of Mali refugees flee into Burkina Faso to escape ethnic violence

Contents: Burkina Faso terror attack targets France’s anti-terror Operation Barkhane; China pushes to invest heavily in Iraq’s energy infrastructure; African Cédric Bakambu joins China’s Sinobo Guoan Football Club

Contents: US expands military counter terrorism efforts in Africa after death of soldiers in Niger; US and Niger dispute the facts about the four soldiers’ deaths

Contents: Jihadist attacks on UN peacekeepers surge in Mali; JNIM (Group for Support of Islam and Muslims) takes credit for attacks

Contents: Jihadists attack multiple targets in Mali and Burkina Faso; France calls for international peacekeeping in G5 Sahel force

Contents: France’s new president Macron commits troops to Mali ‘as long as necessary’; UN peacekeeping forces grow as jihadist attacks increase and Mali A riddle

PARIS – France’s new ambassador to Israel, Helene Le Gal, will be no stranger when she begins her assignment here next month. As a young diplomat on her second post, she spent three years at the embassy in Tel Aviv in the 1990s.

Contents: Yet another terrorist bombing in Ankara Turkey kills 34; AQIM takes credit for armed terror attack on Ivory Coast beach resort

Beloved American missionary Michael Riddering, 45, from Florida, perished in the al-Qaeda attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The Saharan nation of Burkina Faso was the scene of the latest terrorist hostage crisis, as al-Qaeda fighters staged a hotel raid similar to the November attack in Mali. This time, the death toll included 28 people from 18 different countries, plus 50 civilians wounded, and 156 hostages freed.

Al-Qaida militants struck an upscale hotel and nearby cafe late Friday that are popular with Westerners in Burkina Faso’s capital, taking an unknown number of hostages and forcing others to hide for their lives as gunfire and explosions rang out. Commandos used explosives to storm the building five hours later, accidentally setting fire to the hotel.