Daesh claims it kidnapped, killed Canadian geologist in Burkina Faso

The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility Thursday for the killing of a Canadian geologist kidnapped from a mining camp in Burkina Faso two months ago.

The claim appeared in the latest issue of the ISIS propaganda newsletter Al-Naba along with what appeared to be a photo of Kirk Woodman’s Nova Scotia driver’s license.

Woodman was abducted by gunmen on Jan. 15 from a camp operated by B.C.-based Progress Minerals Inc. His body was found 100 kilometres away the next day. He had been shot.

Prof. Amarnath Amarasingam, a Toronto-based terrorism expert, said Al-Naba was a credible ISIS publication. Researcher Aaron Zelin described it as the weekly newsletter of ISIS.

Menastream, a research and risk consultancy that focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, also said it assessed the ISIS publication as credible, noting the copy of Woodman’s driver’s license.

“The publication is a strong indication that Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) has re-established channels of communications with Islamic State Central after a long hiatus,” said Menastream director Héni Nsaibia.

Nsaibia said the local al-Qaida faction, Jama’ah Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, and the ISGS were “interconnected, cooperate and coordinate, and also share objectives and adversaries.”

Woodman was the ninth Canadian to be killed in an attack in the West African country since 2016. The others were claimed by the local al-Qaida franchise, but ISIS has been trying to establish itself in the region.