14 PEOPLE MASSACRED AT CHURCH IN WEST AFRICAN NATION OF BURKINA FASO, SAYS NATION’S PRESIDENT
By: Ryan Saavedra, DailyWire.com, December 2, 2019
At least 14 people were murdered on Sunday at a Christian church in the West African nation of Burkina Faso when attackers stormed the church and opened fire.
“The violence Sunday occurred in an area known for banditry that has come under attack over the past year from suspected jihadist groups with to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State,” The New York Times reported. “Its timing, during hours of worship, mirrored other attacks on Christians this year – a new phenomenon in a West African country that has long prided itself on its religious tolerance.”
The identities of the attackers is not yet known although numerous news reports from on today’s massacre have all mentioned that Burkina Faso has seen a rise in Islamic terrorism in recent years.
A source told AFP that approximately 10 “heavily armed individuals” carried out the attack on the church, “executing the faithful including the pastor and children.”
The Associated Press reported that President Roch Marc Christian Kabore condemned “the barbaric attack” on the church, which was carried out in the town of Hantoukoura, and offered his “deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded.”
Over the past few years, numerous reports have emerged stating that Christians are the most persecuted group in the world.
In 2016, Fox News reported that the “Center for Studies on New Religions determined that 90,000 Christians were killed for their beliefs worldwide last year and nearly a third were at the hands of Islamic extremists like ISIS. Others were killed by state and non-state persecution, including in places like North Korea.”
The study also reportedly found that over half a billion Christians were prevented from practicing their faith in 2016.
Ryan Mauro, national security analyst for the Clarion Project, told Fox News that under the Obama administration the U.S. did not have “a strategy for specifically addressing the persecution of Christians. For example, very few people are even aware that Iraqi Christians began organizing to defend themselves and needed our help.”
In September of this year, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a report outlining religious persecution around the world.
Gary Bauer, one of the nine commissioners on USCIRF, noted that the world is becoming especially dangerous for Christians, saying, “Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world and it’s accelerating.”
As a result of the findings in the report, the USCIRF urged the State Department to give the following countries the designation of “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC): Burma, Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Bauer expressed special concern over one of the nations that appeared on the list: China.
Bauer told CBN News: “So here’s a rising power. It’s economy is growing bigger and bigger each year, its military is expanding. It’s got worldwide ambitions and every place it reaches it’s bringing these values of persecution along with them.”
Jeremy Hunt, a British Member of Parliament who was appointed Foreign Secretary, released an even more dire report this year on the violence that Christians are facing around the world, warning that Christian persecution is “at near genocide levels.”
“Hunt said he felt that ‘political correctness’ had played a part in the issue not being confronted,” the BBC reported. “The interim report said the main impact of ‘genocidal acts against Christians is exodus’ and that Christianity faced being ‘wiped out’ from parts of the Middle East.”
The BBC continued, “It warned the religion ‘is at risk of disappearing’ in some parts of the world, pointing to figures which claimed Christians in Palestine represent less than 1.5% of the population, while in Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to less than 120,000.”
Bishop of Truro the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen said, “Evidence shows not only the geographic spread of anti-Christian persecution, but also its increasing severity. In some regions, the level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN.”
4 CHRISTIANS EXECUTED IN BURKINA FASO FOR WEARING CROSS NECKLACES
By Will Maule | ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor, July 17, 2019
Anti-Christian violence has continued to spread across the West African nation of Burkina Faso, with a further four believers shot dead in cold blood at the end of June.
According to Christian Persecution charity Open Doors USA, on June 27, heavily armed militants were spotted entering the village of Bani with the aim of hunting down followers of Jesus. The small community was gripped with a paralyzing fear as the militants proceeded to order everyone to lie down.
Then, a search ensued. The terrorists had one clear mission: find those who claim Jesus as their Lord and savior. They searched tirelessly for anything that might identify the individuals as Christ-followers. Then, tragically, they succeeded—four men were found to be wearing crosses around their necks.
As soon as it became clear that these men were Christians, they were dragged away from the group and brutally executed. Their names were David Zoungrana, Philippe Zoungrana, Theophile Ouedraogo and Ernest Kassoaga.
“At this stage, we don’t know their ages or anything about the families David, Philippe, Theophile and Ernest left behind,” wrote Lindy Lowery at Open Doors USA. “Just that they followed Jesus—and their faith was part of them. They weren’t afraid to make a public statement of their belief in an area known internationally for its display of seven adobe mosques–six of which are built at the top of Bani’s main hill.”
Unsatisfied with their murderous acts, the men then went on to torch David Zoungrana’s shop. The group then headed through another town, Pougrenoma, where they warned residents, under pain of death, against reporting the incident to any government or military officials. The militants also ordered that any Christians in the community must convert to Islam or risk execution.
Some 27 Christians have been murdered in Burkina Faso since February 27. Heartbreakingly, the number of attacks against communities of faith has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2016, there were 12 reported jihadist attacks, in 2017 there were 33 and in 2018 this number rocketed up to an astonishing 158.
4 KILLED IN ANOTHER ATTACK ON CATHOLIC CHURCH IN BURKINA FASO
By French Press Ageny (AFP), May 27, 2019
Four people were killed Sunday at a Catholic church in northern Burkina Faso in the latest in a series of attacks on Christian targets in the region, according to a bishop in the region and a security source.
“The Christian community of Toulfe was the target of a terrorist attack which gathered for Sunday prayers. The attack left four of the faithful dead,” the Bishop of Ouahigouya, Justin Kientega, said in a statement.
Earlier a security source has said three people were killed in the attack.
“Heavily armed individuals attacked the church… as the faithful were celebrating Sunday mass” in the town of Toulfe, the source said, adding that three people were killed.
Last week gunmen killed four Catholics in a religious procession, the day after a priest and five parishioners were murdered at mass.
Also last week, French special forces freed four foreign hostages in the former French colony during an overnight raid that cost the lives of two soldiers.
Burkina Faso’s population is around two-thirds Muslim and one-third Christian.
The semi-desert country has suffered from increasingly frequent and deadly attacks attributed to a number of terrorist groups, including Daesh terror group’s Greater Sahara branch.
The raids began in 2015 in the north before targeting the capital Ouagadougou and other regions, notably in the east.
Nearly 400 people have been killed since 2015 — mainly in hit-and-run raids — according to an AFP tally.
Terrorist groups have targeted both Christian and Muslim clerics in a country where traditionally both religions have co-existed peaceably.
France has deployed 4,500 troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces flush out terrorists.
JIHADISTS KILL PASTOR, FOUR OTHERS IN BURKINA CHURCH ATTACK
By TRT, April 29, 2019
Ouagadougou (AFP) –Gunmen on Sunday killed at least six people in an attack on a Protestant church in Burkina Faso, says the government spokesman, in the latest violence to rock the formerly peaceful West African nation.
Unidentified gunmen killed one pastor and five congregants in an attack on a Protestant church in northern Burkina Faso on Sunday, government spokesman Remy Fulgance Dandjinou said on Monday.
Burkina Faso has been beset by rising violence this year, but the attack was the first of its kind on a church in the religiously tolerant West African country, Dandjinou told Reuters.
Sunday’s raid took place in the small northern town of Silgadji near Djibo, the capital of Soum province.
It was the first attack on a church since violence erupted in Burkina Faso in 2015.
Troops deployed
Former colonial ruler France has deployed some 4,500 troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces try to flush out militant groups.
“The attack happened around 1:00 pm, just as the faithful were leaving the church at the end of the service,” a member of the church who did not want to be identified told AFP.
“The attackers were on motorbikes. They fired in the air before aiming at the members of the congregation,” the witness added.
Burkina Faso has suffered from increasingly frequent and deadly attacks attributed to a number of militant groups.
The raids began in 2015 in the north before targeting the capital Ouagadougou and other regions, notably in the east.
A total of 350 people have been killed since 2015 – mainly in hit-and-run raids – according to an AFP tally.
The militant groups regularly target both Muslim and Christian clerics, mainly in the north.
In February, a Spanish Catholic priest, Father Cesar Fernandez, was killed in a raid attributed to militants in Nohao in the centre of the country.
He was returning from the adjoining country of Togo when it happened.
Fernandez, 72, had been working in Africa since 1982 for the Salesians of Don Bosco order.
‘Dramatic deterioration’
In March, gunmen abducted Catholic priest Father Joel Yougbare from Botogui, near Djibo, in the north. The Catholic Church has not yet confirmed reports that his body has since been found.
Several imams have also been killed in the north.
According to security sources, the militants do not consider these Muslim clerics sufficiently radical and sometimes accuse them of having collaborated with the authorities.
But religious leaders are not the only people targeted by the militants. On Friday, militants attacked a village school in Maitaougou, in the eastern province of Koulpelogo, killing five teachers and a municipal worker.
Human Right Watch’s Sahel director Corinne Dufka recently said that the surge in militant violence and a government crackdown had “forced tens of thousands of villagers to flee since early 2019.
“Scores of people have been murdered in what amounts to a dramatic deterioration in the rights situation in northern Burkina Faso,” she said last month.
Around 4.3 million people have been driven from their homes in the worsening violence that has engulfed the entire Sahel region, including one million over the past year, according to UN humanitarian officials.
BURKINA FASO CHURCH ATTACK: GUNMEN OPEN FIRE AT MASS SERVICE – PRIEST AMONG SIX DEAD
At least six people were killed after gunmen opened fire inside a church in Burkina Faso.
By Latiya Yedroudj, The Express, May 12, 2019
A group of gunmen broke into a Catholic church in Burkina Faso on Sunday morning during Mass and began shooting at the congregation, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported. At least six people were killed, and a priest was among those who died. The church is located in the village of Dablo, located 90km from Kaya. The mayor of Dablo, Ousmane Zongo, told AFP: “Towards 9:00am, during mass, armed individuals burst into the Catholic Church.
“They started firing as the congregation tried to flee.”
Mr Zongo added: “They burned down the church, then shops and a small restaurant before going to the health centre where they searched the premises and set fire to the head nurse’s vehicle.”
“The city is filled with panic. People are holed up at home. Shops and stores are closed. It’s practically a ghost town.”
This is the first reported attack on a Catholic church, which comes just a week after gunmen killed five people at Protestant church in the northern town of Silgadji.
The attack comes two days after four hostages were released in northern Burkina Faso.
Two French special forces lost their lives in the raid, killing four kidnappers and rescuing all four hostages.
RELATED ARTICLE: As Violence Escalates in Burkina Faso, Family of Slain Missionary Keeps Serving
1 comment
May God fight his battle, punish those behind the attack
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