"More than a dozen people attending Mass were killed in an attack targeting the Protestant Church of Hantoukoura," a community in the border town of Foutouri in Niger, a security source said.
At least ten faithful including "children" were killed on Sunday, December 1, during a religious service during the attack on a Protestant church in Hantoukoura, eastern Burkina Faso. A country that has already recorded several jihadist attacks on places of worship.
Reported around noon, this attack was perpetrated by a "dozen heavily armed individuals," who "coldly executed the faithful, including the pastor of the church and children," said the same source.
According to another security source, the toll would be "14 dead, all male". A "raking operation" was launched by the military group of Foutouri to find the "traces of the attackers" who "fled on board motorcycles".
Recurrent attacks
In Burkina Faso, a poor Sahelian country in West Africa, attacks attributed to jihadist groups against churches or Christian monks have increased recently.
On May 26, four worshipers were killed in an attack on a Catholic church in Toulfe, a town in the north of the country.
A few days earlier, on the 13th of the same month, four Catholics had been killed in a religious procession in honor of the Virgin Mary in Zimtenga, still in the North.
The day before, six people, including a priest, were killed during an attack during mass in a Catholic church in Dablo, a town in Sanmatenga province, also in the north of the country.
On April 29, six people were killed in the attack on the Protestant church in Silgadji in the north.
In mid-March, Father Joël Yougbaré, parish priest of Djibo (north), was abducted by armed individuals.
On February 15, Father César Fernandez, a Salesian missionary of Spanish descent, was killed in central Burkina Faso. Several imams have also been murdered by jihadists in northern Burkina since the attacks began four years ago. .
With AFP