About 30 hostages have been freed after an attack by militants on a hotel in Burkina Faso's Ouagadougou that reportedly killed at least 20 people, BBC reports.
Several masked men stormed the Splendid Hotel, taking hostages, after car bombs went off outside, eyewitnesses said.
Communications Minister Remis Dandjinou tweeted that some 30 hostages had been liberated and that a military operation to secure the site was ongoing. He said Minister of Public Works Clement Sawadogo was among those freed.
It is not known if any hostages remain inside the hotel. One group that monitors jihadist networks said al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed it was behind the attack on the four-star hotel alongside members of the al-Murabitoun Islamist group.