Tag: Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso: concerns over reported rise in extremism

April 20, 2018 Burkina Faso Burkina Faso, Catholics, Djibo, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Pouytenga, West Africa

A church in Burkina Faso. The recent kidnappings of two Christian church leaders has created an atmosphere of anxiety among Christian communities in the north-eastern part of the country. (Photo: Photo: khym54 via Flickr; CC 2.0)

Christian and Muslim leaders in Burkina Faso met last week to discuss interreligious dialogue amidst growing concerns about the spread of violent Islamic extremism in the country, reports Fides. The landlocked West African nation, which borders Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast, is majority-Muslim (around 60%), but also . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: 2 years on, thousands call for release of ‘doctor of the poor’ by Al-Qaeda offshoot

January 17, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Burkina Faso, Djibo, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, Soum, West Africa

Thousands took to the streets of Djibo, a northern town in Burkina Faso, on Monday (15 January) to call for the government to secure the release of an Australian doctor, Ken Elliott, kidnapped two years ago. The abduction was claimed by the ‘Emirate of the Sahara’, a branch of Al-Qaeda . . . Read More

African mission leader searches for positives despite deadly surge of jihadist violence

May 30, 2017 Africa, Boko Haram, Burkina Faso, Europe, Garissa, Gloria Argoti, Islamic extremism, Ivory Coast, Jeff Woodke, Ken Elliott, Lagos, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia

Attacks attributed to radical Islamic groups are happening on a weekly, or even daily, basis in Africa, posing security concerns across a vast swathe of the continent. The phenomenon has dramatically affected Church activities in various regions. But Rev. Reuben E. Ezemadu, Coordinator of the Movement for African National Initiatives . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: citizenship for kidnapped Australian

November 29, 2016 Burkina Faso Ansar Dine, Burkina Faso, Djibo, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, West Africa

An Australian surgeon kidnapped by jihadists in Burkina Faso nearly a year ago, and whose whereabouts remain unknown, has been declared a citizen of the West African nation, an official decree announced on Wednesday (17 Nov.). Ken Elliot was abducted along with his wife Jocelyn in January 2016 by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: Australian Christian woman freed

February 8, 2016 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Burkina Faso, Djibo, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou

Islamic militants have freed an Australian woman who was kidnapped with her husband last month in Burkina Faso, . Jocelyn Elliott and her husband Ken, a medical doctor, were snatched on 15 Jan. by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) from Djibo, near the border with Mali. The couple, who are . . . Read More

Attackers ‘search for Christians’ in Burkina Faso

August 26, 2015 Burkina Faso Boko Haram, Burkina Faso, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, West Africa

Suspected Islamic militants attacked near the West African nation’s border with Mali on Monday, wounding at least two people as they said they were targeting Christians, a witness and a security official said. Witness Alassane Hamidou told Associated Press that he had gone to a police station in Oursi about . . . Read More

Mali’s mausoleums rebuilt, but not churches

July 23, 2015 Mali Burkina Faso, Islamic extremism, Mali, Niger, Timbuktu

Fourteen mausoleums in the city of Timbuktu in northern Mali have been rebuilt, three years after they were destroyed by Islamist extremists. The reconstruction was overseen by Unesco. For most of 2012, armed Islamist groups ruled the region, banning the practice of other religions and desecrating and looting churches and other . . . Read More

Renewed fighting in Mali revives Christian anxieties

May 30, 2014 Mali African Union, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Bamako, Burkina Faso, Gao, Kidal, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Timbuktu, Tuareg

A Malian child waits to see receive a free consultation at a medical clinic in Gao, Mali.16 May 2014UN Photo/Marco Dormino Renewed fighting and re-occupation of a number of towns in northern Mali by armed Tuareg groups has renewed anxieties among the region’s Christian minority. On May 21, a . . . Read More

For a church leader in Mali, relief and anxiety

February 12, 2013 Mali Burkina Faso, Islamic extremism, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Timbuktu, Tuareg

The liberation of the main cities of Northern Mali has created a great sense of relief and joy in the country, but the task of reconstruction and reconciliation is huge. A month after the French offensive, the Malian and African troops have regained control of the main cities in the . . . Read More

Hope in Mali rises with international military intervention

January 15, 2013 Mali Bamako, Burkina Faso, France, Gao, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sharia, Timbuktu, Tuareg, West Africa

French troops have launched a military operation in Mali, aiming at stopping the advance of Islamists from their bases in the north to the South. The French intervention started on Friday, Jan. 11 with air strikes, and had enabled the Malian troops to regain control of the cental town of . . . Read More

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