Attacks on French embassies in Africa since 2000

Friday’s attack on the French embassy in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou is the fifth in a series of attacks on French embassies in Africa since 2000.

• Mauritania, 8 August 2009: Three people, two of them French gendarmes, were slightly injured in an Islamist bomb blast on the country’s embassy in the capital Nouakchott – the first suicide bombing to have taken place in the former French colony.
• Ivory Coast, 8 April 2011: The French embassy in the capital Abidjan was fired on by militants loyal to the country’s strongman Laurent Gbagbo, when they attacked the headquarters of his rival, UN-recognised President Alassane Ouattara.
• Central African Republic, 26 December 2012: French forces were deployed around France's embassy in Bangui after protesters angered by a rebel advance in the north of the country hurled stones at the building, tore down the French flag, burned tires and vandalised the building’s entrance.
• Libya, 23 April 2013: Two French gendarmes were injured, one of them seriously, when a car bomb exploded at France's embassy in Tripoli.

Date created : 2018-03-02