Al Qaida has claimed responsibility for two attacks aimed at foreigners visitors in those countries that left 59 people dead.

The January blast at a hotel in Burkina Faso and another at beach in Ivory Coast two months later targeted vital business and tourism visitors to those countries.

Burkina Faso’s security minister Simon Compaore says 49 people of different citizenship, of which three women, were arrested.

After further investigations, 39 have been released. Compaore says six of the suspects have been trained in Niger and took part in several terrorist attacks against the United Nations’ peacekeeping forces in Mali.

The minister says some of the suspects provided heavy drugs to the suicide bombers.

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