– Unprecedented attack –
The French embassy said on its website that a “terrorist attack” was underway and urged people to avoid the area. An Air France flight from Paris to Ouagadougou was diverted to neighbouring Niger.
A US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington could provide drone-based surveillance.
The Burkinabe army, meanwhile, said a heavily-armed group of about 20 people had also carried out an attack on Friday near the border with Mali, killing two people – a gendarme and a civilian – and leaving two others wounded.
Several attacks have taken place in Burkina Faso in recent months, but no such assaults had hit the capital.
In April the Romanian security chief of a mine in northern Tambao was kidnapped in a move also claimed by Belmokhtar’s Al-Murabitoun group.
Burkina Faso is part of the G5 Sahel grouping that counts the fight against terrorism as part of its remit.
It has also offered support to France’s Barkhane counter-terror mission, spanning five countries in Africa’s restive Sahel region, and French special forces are stationed in Ouagadougou’s suburbs.
Last month, Burkina Faso swore in Roch Marc Christian Kabore as president, completing the troubled West African state’s transition after the overthrow of its longtime ruler Blaise Compaore in 2014 and a failed coup attempt in September.
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