Six people including a priest at a Catholic church in Burkina Faso were killed on Sunday by several gunmen, according to recent reports.
This is the second attack against Christians within two weeks in Burkina Faso, as the minority struggles with Islamic militants.
The attack happened in the town of Dablo which is around 120 miles away from the capital, Ouagadougou, as congregants were leaving the church somewhere around 9 a.m local time when 20 men made a circle around them and started firing, according to the authorities.
Government officials issued a statement in which they said:
“These terrorist groups are now attacking religion with the macabre aim of dividing us.’’
The mayor of Dablo was talking with Reuters on this, as he said that the attackers then burned the church and looted a pharmacy and some other stores before leaving the area.
Burkina Faso struggles with violence like killing and abducting coming from jihadists in the past several months as the country was put on a list of 35 countries by the State Department in which American citizens are exposed at risk of kidnapping and hostage-taking.
According to The Hill, several days before the latest shooting, a raid led by French armed forces rescued four hostages, including one American, two French citizens and a South Korean. France lost two of its soldiers during the raid.
Last Friday, five teachers were murdered also.
Until recently, this was uncommon in the country that had Mail for a neighbor country, as Burkina Faso was known for having a historically high level of tolerance for all kinds of religious groups. However, a state of emergency was proclaimed by the government of Burkina Faso last December as a lot of deadly Islamic attacks occurred mostly in the regions close to the border with Mali.
Be the first to comment