Gunmen who attacked a Protestant church on 28 April asked the pastor and five others to convert to Islam before killing them.
Pastor Pierre Ouédraogo, 80, and other members were chatting in the church yard. Around 1pm a dozen armed men arrived on motorbikes to storm the place.
The assailants asked the Christians to convert to Islam, but the pastor and the others refused. They ordered them to gather under a tree and took their Bibles and mobile phones. Then they called them, one after the other, behind the church building where they shot them dead.
The assailants then set the church and two motorbikes on fire, and stole some sheep and a bag of rice from the pastor’s house before leaving.
It appears to have been the first attack, specifically on a church building, in which people have been killed by Islamist extremists.
According to other local sources, the same attackers (some known to locals as young men who’ve been radicalised) came back into the village the next day searching for Christians. Sources also report that these armed groups can move with impunity because of the lack of law enforcement.
More than 100 Christians already have left for more secure towns further south, such as Kongoussi, over 75 kilometres away.
Increasing insecurity
The International Crisis Group has pointed out the weakness of the country’s security apparatus since the departure of former president Blaise Compaoré in October 2014.
Burkina Faso is long known for its peaceful co-existence among religious communities, unlike neighbouring Mali. However over the past two years, attacks by Islamist militants, military operations, and waves of inter-communal violence have left hundreds dead and 135,000 displaced, triggering an ‘unprecedented’ humanitarian crisis that has caught many by surprise.
