A Canadian citizen was kidnapped in northern Burkina Faso, near the Malian border, on Tuesday night, Burkinabe Security Minister Clement Sawadogo told reporters.
As the minister specified, the kidnapped person was working for the Progress Minerals mining company, which, according to their website, focuses on the "West African Birimian Greenstone Belts, targeting large, low-cost, high-quality, gold deposits".
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As Jean-Paul Badoum, a spokesman to the West African nation's security ministry, specified later, the kidnapped Canadian citizen, Kirk Woodman, was abducted during a raid by suspected extremists on a mining site in Tiabongou, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mansila in Yagha province.
Commenting on the accident, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland stated that her government has seen the reports of the kidnapping.
"There are serious reports he has been kidnapped. We are in touch with authorities in Burkina Faso and the authorities there and the relevant Canadian agencies are very much engaged in this difficult situation," she said.
The state of emergency that has been imposed in several northern provinces of Burkina Faso is connected with the deteriorating security situation in the country: jihadists, including some based in Mali, are attempting to increase their influence across the poorly policed areas of the Sahel region, just south of the Sahara Desert.
