There was no claim of responsibility for the attack at Sunday Mass, but jihadist groups have been trying to gain control of rural areas.

By Reuters
Feb. 17, 2020

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Gunmen killed at least 24 people, including a pastor, in an attack on a church during Sunday Mass in northwestern Burkina Faso, four security sources said on Monday.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, but jihadist groups with links to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are seeking to gain control over rural areas of Burkina Faso by exacerbating ethnic and religious conflict.

Hundreds of people have died over the past year, and more than half a million have fled their homes.

The timing of the shooting, during a church service in the village of Pansi in the Yagha region, mirrors other recent attacks on Christians, including assaults on churches and the assassinations of pastors and priests.

The violence is threatening to upend peaceful relations in Burkina Faso between the majority Muslim population and Christians, who represent up to a quarter of the people in the country.

Armed assailants “attacked the peaceful residents of this area after identifying them and separating them from nonresidents,” the government said in a statement on Monday.

Eight people were injured in the attack and an unknown number were kidnapped, the government said, adding that a pastor was among the dead. The statement did not indicate that the attack occurred in a church during Mass.

Muslims have also been the targets of violence in the past year. In October, gunmen stormed a mosque during Friday Prayer and killed 15 people.

Attacks by jihadist groups have surged in the past year in Burkina Faso and across the broader Sahel region, an arid expanse of scrubland south of the Sahara.

They have worked to sow ethnic tensions between farming and herding communities in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in order to increase their recruitment among marginalized communities.

The number of people displaced by the conflict increased tenfold in 2019, to more than 560,000, making it the world’s fastest-growing displacement crisis, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

nytimes

Dozens killed in church attack in Burkina Faso

Local pastor among 24 dead as armed men target Protestant church in Yagha province as religious attacks continue.

At least 24 people were killed after unidentified gunmen attacked a church in northern Burkina Faso, officials said on Monday, in the latest assault against places of worship in the West African nation.

The attack took place on Sunday during a weekly service at a Protestant church in the village of Pansi in Yagha, a volatile province near the border with Niger.

A group of "armed terrorists attacked the peaceful local population after having identified them and separated them from non-residents", Colonel Salfo Kabore, the regional governor, told AFP news agency.

"The provisional toll is 24 killed, including the pastor... 18 wounded and individuals who were kidnapped," he added.

A resident of the nearby town of Sebba said Pansi villagers fled there for safety.

"It hurt me when I saw the people," Sihanri Osangola Brigadie, the mayor of Boundore commune, told The Associated Press news agency after visiting victims in the hospital in Dori town, 180km (110 miles) from the attack.


'Alarming rate'
Christians and churches have become frequent targets in the north of the country.

Last week, also in Yagha province, a retired pastor was killed and another pastor abducted by gunmen, according to an internal security report for aid workers.

Violence has dramatically escalated in the once-peaceful West African nation.

Analysts are concerned that attacks against civilians, including Christians, are increasing "at an alarming rate".

"Perpetrators use victims' links to government or their faith to justify the killings, while others appear to be reprisal killings for killings by the government security forces," Corinne Dufka, West Africa director for Human Rights Watch, said.

More than 1,300 civilians were killed in targeted attacks last year in Burkina Faso, more than seven times the previous year, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which collects and analyses conflict information.

The insecurity has created a humanitarian crisis with more than 760,000 people internally displaced, according to the government.

aljazeera

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