OUAGADOUGOU: When Burkina Faso swore in its first new president in decades last month, many people hoped the democratic transition would pave the way to an era of progress. Now a deadly raid by Al-Qaeda militants has shaken that optimism.

Thirty people were killed when gunmen struck a restaurant and hotel in the capital Ouagadougou on Friday, exposing a days-old government to a critical security challenge that risks derailing its pledge to transform the economy of one of the poorest nations on earth.

Mass protests in October 2014 drove out former President Blaise Compaore, who had ruled for nearly three decades after taking power in a 1987 coup. Following a year of transition, Roch Marc Christian Kabore won an election to become leader.

Kabore promised to improve access to water, health care and education and signalled a break from the past last week by naming a cabinet packed with ministers with no ties to Compaore.

But those ministers had not even been sworn in when the Al-Qaeda fighters killed citizens of several countries including six Canadians at the Cappuccino cafe and Splendid Hotel, two Ouagadougou establishments popular with foreigners.

“The timing is not random,” said Cynthia Ohayon, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. “We are at a moment of political fragility because the country is coming out of a transition after 27 years and the new government is just starting to get to work.”

While neighboring Mali has been subject to a growing campaign of militant assaults in the past year including one on a hotel in the capital in November, until last week Burkina Faso had been spared a major attack.

President Kabore and his ministers have taken to the airwaves to reassure the public, investors and potential tourists that the government can face down the threat facing Burkina Faso, one of a belt of French-speaking countries in the Sahel, south of the Sahara.

“All security measures have been taken to make Burkina Faso peaceful,” Foreign Minister Alpha Barry told ambassadors on Tuesday at a specially-convened meeting.

Security Minister Simon Compaore was even more direct: “We want to reassure everyone who lives on Burkinabe soil that foreigners can continue to come to our country, to invest in our country and live here.”

In the days to come, France is set to play an important security role both in terms of investigating the attack and using its intelligence network to track potential threats.