Burkina Faso: 24 killed in a church attack

Gunmen attacked Christians, and Muslims, in another deadly attack in the West African country. Three were kidnapped and forced to load the looted items

Burkina Faso: 24 killed in a church attack

Armed men have killed 24 people, including a priest, and kidnapped three others in the Burkina Faso attack - an official said Monday. The West African country has deteriorated into chaos in recent years, and according to a group that follows the world's disputes, more than 1,300 civilians were killed in the country last year, seven times more than in the previous year. 760,000 people were displaced from their homes as part of the severe humanitarian crisis created by the violence.

Bondura community chief Sihanari Osangola Brigadi said the attack happened yesterday in the town of Fancy, Yaga County. About 20 militants separated the men from the women near a Protestant church, and at least ten more people were injured. They plundered oil and rice from the shops, forcing the three griefs they had stolen to help them load the stolen goods onto their motorcycles. "It pains me to see them," he said after visiting some of the wounded in a Dori hospital, 180 kilometers from the scene of the attack.

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In a hospital in the Burkina Faso capital that treated the wounded (Photo: Reuters)

Hospital in Burkina Faso capital (Photo: Reuters)

A security source in Dori, who spoke anonymously because he was not allowed to speak to the media, said Christians and Muslims were killed in the attack before the church was set alight. The incident joins the killing of a former pastor in the district last week, and the kidnapping of another priest by gunmen.

Corin Dupka, director of West Africa at the Human Rights Watch, said the violence against civilians, including Christians, is on "alarming rise" in the former peaceful state. "The attackers use the victims' ties to the government or their faith to justify their killings, and at other times look like revenge acts for killing by government security forces," she said.