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

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

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

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