Australia's Perenti says 19 of its employees killed in Burkina Faso attack
07/11/2019 23:18
Nov 8 (Reuters) - Australian mining services provider
Perenti Global Ltd PRN.AX said on Friday that 19 of its
employees were among the more than three dozen people killed in
the ambush of a convoy ferrying hundreds of workers near a
Canadian-owned mine in Burkina Faso.
Gold miner Semafo Inc SMF.TO said five of its buses with a
military escort came under fire on Wednesday on the road to its
Boungou mine in the eastern region of Est.
The attack killed at least 37 and wounded 60, local
authorities said. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N27N748
Perenti said 20 of its employees were also hospitalised in
the attack.
The Perenti employees killed or wounded worked for its
African Mining Services unit, which had been contracted by
Semafo for work at its Boungou mine.
The company said those numbers were yet to be officially
confirmed. It added that its work at the Boungou mine was
suspended and it was planning to send staff back to their homes
and assess the impact of the suspension on its earnings guidance
for the 2020 financial year.
In a separate statement, Geodrill Ltd GEO.TO said two of
its employees were killed in the incident. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N27N5BF
It remains unclear how many people were in the convoy, what
their nationalities were or how many were missing. But two
security sources said dozens may still be unaccounted for.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N27N8QU
The identity of the assailants was unclear, but Burkina Faso
is struggling to combat surging Islamist violence in remote
eastern and northern scrubland areas of the West African state.
(Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; Editing by
Peter Cooney)
((NikhilKurian.Nainan@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter:
@NikhilKurianN; +91 806 749 1637))