Former Toronto teacher and Montreal-based volunteer killed in Burkina Faso attack

CBC News has confirmed the identities of two Canadian citizens killed Sundayafter gunmen opened fire on a popular restaurant in the capital of the West African country of Burkina Faso.

Tammy Chen, a former Toronto teacher, and Bilel Diffalah, a volunteer with the Montreal-basedCentre for International Studies and Co-operation, died afterassailants arriving on motorcycles shot at the restaurant crowd in Ouagadougou in an apparently random attack.

"It is with heavy hearts that we have learned of the passing of former [Toronto District School Board] teacher, Tammy Chen the victim of a senseless act of violence in Burkina Fasoon Sunday night," the school board said in a statement Monday.

Chen was a French immersion teacher at Glen Ames Senior Public School until 2013, when she left to pursue her doctorate at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., the board said.

• 2 Canadians among 18 killed in Burkina Faso attack

"Tammy is being remembered as a very passionate, charismatic and diligent teacher by her colleagues," said the statement. "Not only was she respected and well-liked by students, parents and colleagues, she was always willing to go the extra mile to help students."

Chen also attended a Master of Education program at Queen's University, through which, according to a profile on the school's website,she first traveled to Burkina Faso.

As part of her studies at Queen's, the profile says she founded a radio station and worked with street youth in the country.

Chen returned to Burkina Faso after receiving her degree, the profile says, and there founded Bright Futures forBurkina Faso, a charity that provides smallloans to mothers.

Diffalahwas in Burkina Faso as a hygiene and biosecurity adviser, a statement from theCentre for International Studies and Co-operation said Monday.

"Bilel was a very dedicated volunteer," saidFatimata Lankoande, co-ordinator of the Uniterra program inBurkina Faso in the statement.

"In our experience, he had always shown exemplary behaviour as a Canadian volunteering overseas."

No one has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack that left 18 dead.

Burkina Faso's Foreign Ministry saidearlier that other foreigners among the victims include two Kuwaitis, and one person each from France, Senegal, Nigeria, Lebanon and Turkey.Seven Burkina Faso citizens were also killed.

"The heartfelt condolences of our governmentgo out to the loved ones of those targetedand the victims in this tragic attack," Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said during a news conference in Ottawa on Monday.