By Nurat Uthman
A court in Burkina Faso has sentenced two people to life in prison over a 2017 attack on a Turkish restaurant in the capital that killed 19 people, officials said.
Two gunmen opened fire on people at the Aziz Istanbul restaurant on Ouagadougou’s main avenue in August 2017.
No claim of responsibility was made for the attack, which followed several others targeting spots popular with expatriates.
“Two defendants were tried during a session in November and sentenced to life imprisonment,” an office specialised in counterterrorism said in a statement seen by AFP on Thursday.
The two were detained during an operation in 2018 following an investigation, it added.
Two attackers were killed by security forces in a counter-assault at the time of the attack
The victims included 10 Burkinabes and nine foreigners
The restaurant was just 200 metres (yards) from a hotel and cafe targeted in an assault in January 2016 that left 30 people dead and 71 wounded, many of them foreigners.
In March 2018, simultaneous attacks also targeted the army headquarters and the French embassy, killing eight Burkinabe soldiers.
Prosecutor Lafama Prosper Thiombiano said eight people would be tried soon over the dual attack, although no date has been given.
Like fellow Sahel states Mali and Niger, which are also led by military juntas, Burkina Faso has been battling a surge of attacks by jihadist armed groups.
Nearly two million of its citizens have been forced from their homes by the conflict, which has killed more than 26,000 people since 2015, including soldiers and civilians, according to monitoring group ACLED.
