Not less than four people were killed as heavily armed men stormed a Catholic church in northern Burkina Faso, and opened fire on worshippers. The latest in a string of assaults on Christian places of worship in the region according to report by Aljazeera and News agencies.
“The Christian community of Toulfe was the target of a terrorist attack gathered for Sunday prayers,” the bishop of Ouahigouya, Justin Kientega, said in a statement on Sunday. “The attack left four of the faithful dead.”
A security source told AFP news agency “heavily armed individuals attacked the church … as the faithful were celebrating Sunday mass” in the town of Toulfe, 240km northwest of the capital Ouagadougou.READ MORE
“[The attack] caused panic in the village and many residents sought cover in their homes or in the bush,” a local resident said.
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Last week, gunmen killed four Catholics in a religious procession, days after a priest and five others were murdered at mass.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks that threaten to upend traditionally peaceful relations between majority Muslims and Christians who make up one-quarter of the country.
The government has blamed unnamed armed groups operating in the country and Africa’s surrounding Sahel region.
Nearly 400 church members have been killed since 2015 – mainly in hit-and-run raids, according to an AFP tally.
Armed groups target Christian clergy as well as Muslim scholar they do not consider sufficiently conservative in a country where traditionally both religions have co-existed peaceably.
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France has deployed 4,500 troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission code named Barkhane to help local forces flush out fighters.
French special forces this month freed four foreign hostages in the former French colony during an overnight raid that killed two soldiers.
Christians are sitting ducks. Unarmed, unprotected and clinging on to the principle of showing the other cheek. Christian nations, in spite of holding formidable military power and economic resources, look the other way when believers are hunted down every day across the world.