An attack on a Catholic church in northeastern Burkina Faso on Sunday resulted in at least 15 deaths and two injuries.
It happened during Sunday prayers in the Oudalan provincial hamlet of Essakane, which is near the Mali border. Not many specifics have been provided.
According to a church spokesman, the gunmen were allegedly extremist Islamists. The authorities in Ouagadougou, the capital of the West African nation, did not respond right away.
According to a statement made by Abbot Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, the leader of the local diocese, 12 persons died at the scene right away, and three more passed away in the hospital.
“In this painful circumstance, we invite you to pray for those who died in faith, for the healing of the wounded, and for the consolidation of grieving hearts,” the message continues.
It is the most recent atrocity in the nation linked to radical Islamists. Currently, militants control more than one-third of Burkina Faso.
Islamist militants associated with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda have been fighting the state, displacing millions of people in the Sahel and occupying vast areas of land.
Numerous worshipers have been killed and churches have been targeted in the last three years.
The military dictatorship that rules Burkina Faso and its neighbors, Mali and Niger, in the Sahel region recently withdrew from the regional political and economic bloc known as Ecowas.
One of their stated motivations for wanting to leave the union was Ecowas’s lack of assistance in the war against terrorism.
The union has already suspended the three junta-led nations and urged them to revert to democratic governance.
President Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso, who has the support of the military, stated earlier this month that Russian troops may be sent in to combat terrorists in the West African nation if necessary.
