A Catholic church in Burkina Faso was left in sorrows after a group of unknown gunmen raided the church with assaulted rifles leaving six of church members dead.
According to a government statement and local sources, the congregants were leaving the church at about 9:00 am Sunday in the town of Dablo, Central North region when about 20 men encircled them in the process shooting six people dead on the spot.
The attackers then burned the church, looted a pharmacy and some other stores, and left, Dablo Mayor Ousmane Zongo told Reuters. The Government statement only mentioned the burning of a shop and two vehicles.
Burkina Faso has been beset by a rise in attacks in 2019 as groups with links to Islamic State and Al Qaeda based in neighboring Mali seeks to fuel local tensions and extend their influence over the porous borders of the Sahel, the arid scrubland south of the Sahara.
The Government declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali in December because of deadly Islamist attacks. But violence has only worsened since. Two French soldiers were killed in an operation to rescue four people taken hostage in Burkina last week, France said.
Over 100,000 people in Burkina Faso have been displaced by the unrest this year, the United Nations has said. Roughly 55 percent to 60 percent of Burkina Faso’s population is Muslim, with up to a quarter Christian.
The two groups generally live in peace and frequently intermarry. In late April unidentified gunmen killed a pastor and five congregants at a Protestant church, also in the north, suggesting the violence was taking a religious turn.