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Over two dozen killed in assault on Burkina Faso church

Monday, 17 February 2020 11:21 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 17 February 2020 11:31 AM ]

File photo shows villagers cycling with water tins towards the village of Bagare, Passore province, northern Burkina Faso, March 30, 2016. (By Reuters)

Gunmen have killed 24 people and wounded 18 in an assault on a village church in northern Burkina Faso, officials say.

The regional governor said on Monday that the local pastor was targeted in the attack.

A group of “armed terrorists” burst into the village of Pansi, in Yagha, a volatile province near the Niger border,” and “attacked the peaceful local population after having identified them and separated them from non-residents,” Colonel Salfo Kabore said in a statement.

This image shows members of the Burkina Faso armed forces on patrol at a camp sheltering Internally Displaced People (IDP) from Mali in Dori, on February 3, 2020.(By AFP)

Burkina Faso has been beset by a rise in terrorists attacks as Takfiri militant groups with links to Daesh and al-Qaeda based in neighboring Mali seek to extend their influence over the porous borders of the Sahel, the arid scrubland south of the Sahara.

Roughly 55% to 60% of Burkina Faso’s population is Muslim, with up to a quarter Christian. The two groups generally live in peace and frequently intermarry.

In late April, unidentified gunmen killed a pastor and five congregants at a Protestant church, also in the north, suggesting the violence was taking a religious turn.

The government had already declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali following the rise in such deadly extremist attacks.

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