Burkina Faso: Fulani pastor brings hope to stigmatised communities

A primary schoolboy walks to school in Dori, northeastern Burkina Faso. (Getty Photo)
The disproportionate presence of ethnic Fulani among Islamist militants wreaking havoc in the Sahel and West Africa has led to a stigmatisation of the Fulani generally, says a Protestant pastor from Burkina Faso. In April security forces went into Djibo, a town in the northern part of Burkina Faso and . . . Read More

Swiss woman, hostage almost 5 years, killed by Islamist extremists in Mali

Beatrice Stockli settled in Timbuktu in 2000 and was first kidnapped for 10 days in 2012
A Swiss missionary Beatrice Stockli – kidnapped from Timbuktu in northern Mali in January 2016 – was killed only weeks before other hostages were freed by Islamist extremists, in an apparent prisoner-hostage swap negotiated by the new transitional government in Mali. News of her execution came from Sophie Petronin, a . . . Read More

Christians in Africa face ‘explosion’ in violence, senior church leader says

Church leaders as well as government officials and representatives of the Muslim community attended the funeral of the six killed in the Dablo attack. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Violence against Christians in Africa “is exploding”, according to a senior church leader in the Central African Republic. In Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mozambique there has been an increase in attacks on Christians, including church leaders and churches in recent weeks, said Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga in an interview with the . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: 5 leaders killed in 3 months as Islamists continue to target churches

Church leaders as well as government officials and representatives of the Muslim community attended the funeral of the six killed in the Dablo attack. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
At least ten more Christians have been killed as a spate of attacks on churches continues in northern Burkina Faso. The ten, who died in two attacks on 12 and 13 May, include another Catholic priest, Siméon Yampa. On Monday, 13 May, a procession of four Catholics was attacked while . . . Read More

Burkina Faso church leader killed by Islamists: ‘I’d rather die than leave my community’

An outdoor church outside a home western Burkina Faso.(Photo: CIF Action via Flickr; CC 2.0)
Gunmen who attacked a Protestant church in Burkina Faso on 28 April asked the pastor and five others to convert to Islam before they killed them, World Watch Monitor has learned. Last Sunday’s violence in the West African country appears to have been the first attack, specifically on a church . . . Read More

1,000 days since kidnap of 84-year-old doctor in Burkina Faso, family plead for his release

Ken Elliott
It’s over 1,000 days now since an Australian doctor, Ken Elliott, was kidnapped in Djibo, Burkina Faso, on 15 January, 2016. His abduction was claimed by the ‘Emirate of the Sahara’, a branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Dr. Elliott, with his wife, had run a 120-bed clinic in . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: Kidnappers release pastor and his family after four days

Burkina Faso: Kidnappers release pastor and his family after four days
The pastor abducted on Sunday with his family in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum has been released. Local sources told Omega Radio that Pastor Pierre Boena, his son David and his daughter-in-law, Ami Sawadogo, were released yesterday (7 June). The report did not specifically mention the two granddaughters, Fasne-wendé . . . Read More

Second Christian leader in two weeks kidnapped in Burkina Faso

Second Christian leader in two weeks kidnapped in Burkina Faso
A Christian pastor and three members of his family have been kidnapped in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum, two weeks after the kidnapping of another Christian leader and his wife. Pierre Boena, a pastor with an Assembly of God church, was kidnapped during the evening of Sunday 3 June . . . Read More