Attacks on mosque kill dozens in Burkina Faso, on same day as Catholic church massacre
OUAGADOUGOU - An attack on a mosque in eastern Burkina Faso has killed dozens of Muslims on the same day as another deadly attack on Catholics attending mass, local and security sources told AFP on Monday.
The two attacks struck on Sunday in different regions of the junta-ruled country caught for several years in a spiral of jihadist violence.
“Armed individuals attacked a mosque in Natiaboani on Sunday around 05 hours, resulting in several dozen being killed,” a security source said.
“The victims were all Muslims, most of them men” who had come for morning prayers, a local resident said by telephone.
Soldiers and members of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland, a civilian force that supports the military, were also targeted “by these hordes who came in large numbers,” the same source said.
The source described it as a “large-scale attack” in terms of the number of assailants, who also wreaked substantial damage.
Natiaboani is a rural community about 60 kilometres south of Fada N’Gourma, the main town in Burkina’s eastern region, which has seen regular attacks by armed groups since 2018.
On the same day as the attack on the mosque, at least 15 civilians were killed and two others wounded in an attack on a Catholic church during Sunday mass in northern Burkina Faso, a senior church official said.
Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, vicar of the Dori diocese, said in a statement that the “terrorist attack” occurred in the village of Essakane while people were gathered Sunday prayer.
Essakane village is in what is known as the “three borders” zone in the northeast of the country, near the common borders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
Pope Francis on Monday deplored the “tragic terrorist attack on a Catholic church in Essakane” and expressed his “pain” over the attacks on Muslims in a telegram sent by Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State. for
Burkina Faso is part of the vast Sahel region, which has been locked in a battle against rising violent extremism since Libya’s civil war in 2011, followed by an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012.
Mosques and imams have in the past been the target of attacks blamed on jihadists.
Churches in Burkina have also at times been targeted in the attacks and Christians have been kidnapped. –