Five people including a priest have died in an apparent jihadist attack on a church in Burkina Faso.
Gunmen on motorbikes entered the church in the town of Silgadji near Djibo, the capital of Soum province, and opened fire near the end of Sunday’s service.
The priest, named as Pierre Ouedraogo, and two of his sons are said to have been killed in the attack.
The attackers then fled to the north towards the country’s border with Mali, according to BBC Africa.
‘Unidentified armed individuals have attacked the Protestant church in Silgadji killing four members of the congregation and the pastor. At least two other people are missing,’ a security source told AFP.
A member of the church said: ‘The attack happened around 1pm, just as the faithful were leaving the church at the end of the service.
‘The attackers were on motorbikes. They fired in the air before aiming at the members of the congregation.’
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Sunday’s assault in the small northern town was the first on a church in the impoverished west African nation.
The country has seen a surge in killings blamed on jihadists.
The attacks started in the north of the country before targetting the capital Ouagadougou and other regions, notably the east of the country.
In February, a Spanish priest, Father Cesar Fernandez, was killed in a raid attributed to jihadists in Nohao in the centre of the country.
Burkina Faso is part of the vast Sahel region, which has turned into a hotbed of violent extremism and lawlessness since chaos engulfed Libya in 2011.
Despite international efforts to create a transnational anti-jihadist military operation, named the G5 Sahel force, the situation is getting worse.
A report submitted to the UN Security Council last year warned that security had ‘deteriorated rapidly over the last six months’ in the area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, with attacks spreading to eastern Burkina Faso.
According to an official report in September, 229 people had been killed in Islamist attacks in Burkina Faso since 2015, and the number has increased since then.
The growing boldness of jihadist fighters in the former French colony reflects the government’s apparent inability to protect its citizens. (DailyMail)
