[ad_1]
A Spanish priest and four customs officers were killed in separate attacks by suspected jihadists in Burkina Faso, wrestling with radical Islamist insurgency, local sources said.
"The Salesian Spaniard Antonio Cesar Fernandez was badbadinated during a jihadist attack between Togo and Burkina Faso", Friday around 15:00 (local time), said the order of the Salesians of Don Bosco in a statement posted on Twitter on Friday.
Fernandez and two others were returning from a meeting in the Togolese capital, Lome, when they "were attacked by gunmen after crossing the border between Togo and Burkina Faso," said the head of the 39, order, José Elegbede, in a statement.
"After searching the car, they shot Cesar from the group and the men shot him," added Elegbede.
The group's driver, Fabrice Aziawo, said the gunmen had captured them at a checkpoint.
"Armed men took us into the forest, Cesar and I. I heard gunshots, they told me to turn around and I saw Caesar lying on the ground . "
Cesar Fernandez, 72, has been working in Africa since 1982, said his order, the Don Bosco Salesians, in a statement posted on Twitter.
In another attack, gunmen targeted customs officers who set up a mobile station in Nohao, near the border with Togo, on Friday night, killing four of them, declared to AFP a security officer.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered his condolences to the priest's family and colleagues.
"I am absolutely outraged by this attack and my respect for those who … risk their lives to work in conflict zones," he added on Twitter.
A local security source said the attack was perpetrated by "a group of about 20 armed men who then fled to a forested area".
According to an AFP count, more than 300 people were killed in the country in four years of jihadist attacks.
S & # 39; register
to the main News24 news in Africa in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO HELLO
NEWSLETTER AFRICA
TO FOLLOW
News24 Africa on Twitter and Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link
