Michael Riddering, a 45-year-old American missionary (seen with his wife, Amy) was killed when four gunmen stormed into a Burkina Faso hotel and cafe Friday
An American missionary among 28 people massacred in Burkina Faso Friday was waiting for volunteers flying in from Florida when four Al Qaeda terrorists stormed a popular cafe and adjoining hotel, U.S. officials said.
Michael James Riddering, 45, of Hollywood, Fla., was killed during a 12-hour siege at the Cappuccino Cafe and the nearby Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, authorities said.
The married father of four stopped for a cup of coffee at the cafe 65 miles south of his home in Yako before picking up about 20 volunteers on a plane from Penbroke Pines, Fla.
The incoming plane was diverted just before landing as a barrage of gunfire exploded in Ouagadougou, but Riddering was caught in the madness below.
“I got a lot of information right away that he was in pretty big trouble,” his brother Jeff Riddering told the Daily News.
Michael Riddering rarely made visits to the West African nation’s capital, except to pick up visitors. Friday’s errand turned tragic as a frantic phone call from a pastor alerted Riddering’s wife, Amy, to the chaos unfolding at the cafe.
The pastor managed to flee the deadly attack, but Riddering’s fate was not immediately clear. Amy Riddering put “two and two together” when the pastor used her husband’s phone and said he was missing.
Jeff Riddering said his brother, a former alcoholic and boat salesman, turned his life around by moving to Burkina Faso to start an orphanage with the aid of the Missouri-based Southgate Church.
“His heart was cold and then it was filled with incredible amounts of love,” he recalled. “He just wanted to make up for lost time. He gave a lot of work to the church there.”
In Yako, Michael and his wife started their new life by building an orphanage, school and adopting two children, ages 4 and 15. As the Les Ailes de Refuge’s director, he collected shoe donations and hosted university students to implement experimental agriculture methods for local farmers.
Survivors of an attack at the Cappuccino Cafe were taken to Ouagadougou in military vehicles
“He told me he’s never going to leave ... that’s his new home,” Jeff said. “He wanted to be buried there. Of course, he didn’t think he was going to die when he said that.”
A fellow missionary went looking for Michael in Ouagadougou, as his wife was unable to make the two hour drive, and found his body in the city’s morgue.
“He died doing what he enjoyed most,” Jeff added.
A woman is led to safety after the violence in Ouagadougou.
The couple’s adult children, ages 20 and 23, were in the U.S. when the attacks happened.
“Heaven has gained a warrior,” Amy Riddering wrote on Facebook.
She called him, “my best friend, partner in crime and love of my life.”
Al Qaeda militants claimed responsibility for the Burkina Faso attack in a video showing one-eyed Mokhtar Belmokhtar speaking at an undisclosed location.
The terrorist group claimed responsibility for Saturday’s slaughter in a chilling audiotape titled “A Message Signed With Blood and Body Parts” after its militants stormed the cafe and the hospital in the capital of the West African nation.
At least four attackers shouting “Allahu Akbar!” were believed responsible for injuring dozens more, including two women who drove into the country from neighboring Niger.
The violent foursome were finally killed by security forces.
Witnesses said the assailants were hell-bent on murdering as many non-Muslims as possible, blasting away at fleeing targets even as they torched the cafe.
“I raced outside,” said Rachid Faouzi Ouedraogo, 22, a resident of the neighborhood where the carnage occurred. “I saw people running through the streets, and four people firing at the people at Cappuccino.”
The cafe owner’s wife and 5-year-old daughter were among the dead during a bloodbath in which the Al Qaeda acolytes held scores of hostages.
Others cowered inside the cafe bathroom or hid on rooftops as the shooting went on for hours.
( Source )