Burkina Faso, Mali Coordinate Forces after Deadly Attacks

Local Editor

Burkina Faso and Mali agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of extremist militants in West Africa by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols following two deadly and well-coordinated attacks in the region.

Relatively, the countries' PMs met on Sunday, two days after the al-Qaeda militants seized the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, opened fire on a restaurant and attacked another hotel nearby, killing at least 28 people from at least seven countries, and wounding 50 other people.

The assault, claimed by the so-called al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM], preceded a similar raid in November on a luxury hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako, which killed 20 people, including Russian, Chinese and American citizens.

The militant group identified three attackers and called the targeted hotel and surrounding areas "one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent."

However, the exact details of the cooperation between Burkina Faso and Mali were not immediately clear, but the patrols and intelligence sharing mark an intent by the two countries to prevent the spread of militancy as [AQIM] and others expand operations in the region beyond their usual reach.

For years, terrorist militants used northern Mali as a base, but over the past year they staged a number of attacks in other parts of the country. Burkina Faso's authorities are now concerned that its long desert border with Mali could become a transit point for militants.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team