Burkina Faso: Church helping thousands of Christians forced into exile

IDPs in Ouahigouya Diocese, Burkina Faso © ACN

Source: Aid to the Church in Need

The Church - with support from a leading Catholic charity - has stepped up help for thousands of Christians driven out of their homes by extremists in Burkina Faso, according to a priest caring for displaced people.

Father André Poré from Ouahigouya Diocese told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that around 2,000 people who fled their homes last year after an attack are still living in "makeshift shelters".

The priest said that the Church is relying on ACN's support to provide food, medicine and psychological help for traumatised IDPs (internally displaced persons).

He added: "When the extremists arrive, either they kill the whole population, or - having killed several people at random to show that they are serious - they force the people to leave their houses before nightfall.

"In Rollo in particular [in May 2023], the terrorists ransacked and burned everything, and the next day they killed several people who were fleeing along the road."

Father Poré said: "The 2,000 or so refugees had to cover about 40 kilometres [25 miles] on foot, in the middle of the night, as far as Kongoussi, along roads mined by the terrorists…

"A mine exploded that very night, killing some of the livestock which they had taken with them, only a few seconds before the men, the carts, the women and children passed by… The people could all have died. But God's hand was with them."

He added that the parishioners at his church, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus in Kongoussi, came together to provide food and clothes for the IDPs.

He stressed that 400 of the IDPs have died this year because of lack of sanitation and high temperatures.

Those who survived need help to heal from the traumas they have endured, according to Father Poré, who has organised pastoral activities and spiritual support with ACN's help.

The charity has also supported the construction of shelters for IDPs and funded children's education, as well as providing pastoral and income-generating programmes.

Father Poré said that "there are evident parallels" between "the deportation of the people of Israel to Babylon" and the Christian communities being forced out of their homes in Burkina Faso.

He added: "What we are living here is something which the people of God have already lived in history and which we know through the Bible."

ACN previously reported that extremists killed around 100 Christians and kidnapped many more in Burkina Faso between May and August this year.

With thanks to Sina Hartert

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Aid to the Church in Need: www.acnuk.org