Gunmen killed 24 During Attack On Burkina Faso Church

By Bimbo Ogunnaike

No fewer than 24 people were killed and wounded 18 by gunmen during an attack on a village church in northern Burkina Faso.

The regional governor,Colonel Salfo Kabore said in a statement 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,”Kabore said.

It would be recalled that 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.

It is estimated that 55 to 60 per cent 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.