Burkina Faso: Priest murdered

Fr Jacques Yaro Zerbo

Source: Fides

A Catholic priest has been killed in Burkina Faso. Father Jacques Yaro Zerbo was assassinated by unidentified armed men on Monday, 2 January.

According to a statement from Mgr Prosper Bonaventure KY, Bishop of Dédougou, the 67-year-old priest was murdered in the village of Soro, in the Boucle du Mouhoun region, in north-western Burkina Faso.

Father Jacques Yaro Zerbo was born on December 28, 1956 in Kolongo, in present-day Mali and was ordained a priest on July 19, 1986 in Dédougou.

The Boucle du Mouhoun region, in the north-west of the country, is one of the regions most affected by terrorism in Burkina Faso. In this region at least 28 civilians were killed in the night between Friday, December 30 and Saturday, December 31, in "retaliation" following a "terrorist" attack in the town of Nouna, capital of the province of Kossi.