The African Church is increasingly under attack.
Today, during mass, in Essakane, Burkina Faso, fifteen people were killed.
In recent days, four Orthodox monks were kidnapped and then killed in Ethiopia.
At the Angelus, Pope Francis himself expressed his concerns about the clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and about the phenomenon of kidnappings in Nigeria, which often affects religious people.
Today, therefore, a terrorist attack hit the Catholic community of the village of Essakane, Burkina Faso, in the heart of the Sahel, just as they were participating in the Sunday service.
"The provisional toll is 15 faithful killed, of which 12 died on site and 3 in the health center due to their wounds."
There are two more injured, according to what was announced by the bishop of the diocese of Dori, Monsignor Laurent B. Dabire.
"We pray for the conversion of those who continue to sow death in our country," the bishop wrote in a statement.
"Today Burkina Faso - explains the director of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, Alessandro Monteduro - for Islamist fundamentalism is what northern Iraq represented ten years ago. And Dori, in the north of the country, represents what Mosul it was in those years considered the capital of the self-styled Islamic State. As for that large Middle Eastern area in 2014, a large part of Burkina Faso, probably over 50%, is today in the hands of jihadist terrorist groups. Christians in particular are the victims of their ferocity. There are now millions of people who are internally displaced or who are trying to migrate, wandering between villages and cities that are now deserted and looking for a place to live. Areas that are also unreachable even for humanitarian organisations", adds Monteduro.
Hence the appeal of the pontifical foundation: "Aid to the Church in Need invokes international institutions to understand that it is no longer possible not to consider the suffering of these innocent African communities".
Not only is the Catholic community in the crosshairs but also the Orthodox one.
Armed men linked to Oromo rebel groups attacked the Zequala monastery, 50 kilometers from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they abducted and subsequently killed four monks.
The event happened on February 22nd.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has put forward the hypothesis that the Oromo Liberation Army group has a clandestine link with the regional government authorities of Oromia to target members of the Christian Orthodox Church in the region.
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