Burkina Faso: Four killed in attack on Catholic church

Procession in Kaya, Burkina Faso - Sesame pictures

Source: Vatican Media

The latest in a string of terror attacks on Christians took place on Sunday morning in northern Burkina Faso in west Africa.

According to local media, heavily armed men raided the Catholic Church in the town of Toulfe and opened fire during Mass, killing four of the faithful and injuring two others.

Bishop Justin Kientega, of Ouahigouya, described it as "a terrorist attack".

A local resident said the attack caused panic in the village, causing residents to seek cover in their homes or in the bush.

Last week, attackers killed four Catholics taking part in a religious procession in Zimtenga. Earlier in May, gunmen murdered a young priest and five parishioners in Dablo. An attack on a Protestant church in Silgadji in late April killed six people.

No one has claimed responsibility for the violence, but suspicion has fallen on Islamic militants. The government has laid the blame on unnamed terrorist groups operating throughout the Sahel region. Mali-based Islamic extremists frequently carry out attacks in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

The upswing in anti-Christian violence is threatening to overturn traditionally peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians in Burkina Faso.

Bishop Theophile Nare, from the neighbouring Kaya Diocese, told Vatican News that Christians do not want to be locked in a spiral of violence, despite growing insecurity in the region.

"I see this as part of jihadists' strategy, which is to inflame tensions between the Christian and Muslim communities through their actions," he said. "I think the driving vision is to spark war that is inter-ethnic, inter-religious, and inter-communal."

But Christians, said Bishop Nare, want to reject the trap of violence that sets Christianity and Islam against one another.

"This is the work of a radicalized group of Muslims," he said.

According to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, attacks in the Sahel region have increased from three in 2015 to 137 in 2018.