At least 29 people many of them foreigners were killed and a further 56 injured after Islamist militants attacked a hotel in the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, popular with foreigners.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has said it carried out the attack, which began on Friday night.
Six of those killed were from Canada, the country’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. The siege at the Splendid Hotel was declared over after a joint operation by local and French security forces.
The hours-long drama saw Burkinabe troops, backed by French special forces, battle militants including two women fighters, who stormed the four-star Splendid Hotel, and took more than a hundred people hostage.
Burkina Faso declared three days of national mourning following the attack. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who took office just last month, said in a radio and television address that the nation is in shock.
He said the country has fallen victim to a series of barbaric terrorist attacks for the first time in its history, adding that the people of Burkina would nevertheless emerge victorious.
Interior Minister Simon Compaore said the bodies of three young jihadists had been identified, all of them men. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed the attack on behalf of an affiliate.
At least four attackers died in the assaults. There were claims that some of those involved were women.
Burkinabe Security Minister Simon Compoare said 176 hostages had been rescued. Burkina Faso is to observe 72 hours of national mourning for the victims.