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OUAGADOUGOU: Four people were killed Sunday (May 26) in a Catholic church in northern Burkina Faso during a series of attacks on Christian targets in the region, according to a local bishop and a source of security.
"The Christian community of Toulfe was the target of a terrorist attack that gathered for Sunday prayers, which killed four people among the faithful," said the bishop of Ouahigouya. , Justin Kientega, in a statement.
Earlier, a security source said that three people had been killed in the attack.
"Heavily armed individuals attacked the church … while worshipers were celebrating Sunday Mbad" in the city of Toulfe, the source said.
A local resident, contacted by telephone by AFP, said that the attack "caused panic in the village and that many residents sought to protect themselves, at home or in the bush" .
Last week, gunmen killed four Catholics in a religious procession the day after the murder of a priest and five parishioners.
Also this month, French special forces released four foreign hostages in the former French colony during a night raid that killed two soldiers.
The population of Burkina Faso is composed of about two thirds of Muslims and one third of Christians.
The semi-desert country has suffered increasingly frequent and lethal attacks attributed to a number of militant groups, including the Ansarul Islam group, the Islamist and Muslim Support Group (GSIM) and the Islamic State of the Great Sahara.
The raids began in 2015 in the north before targeting the capital Ouagadougou and other regions, especially in the east.
According to an AFP count, nearly 400 people have been killed since 2015 – mostly during badaults.
The jihadist groups are addressing Christian clerics as well as Muslims they do not consider sufficiently radical in a country where traditionally the two religions coexisted peacefully.
France has deployed 4,500 troops to Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad as part of a mission named Barkhane, to help local forces eliminate militants.
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