The Bishop of Kaya calls for a day of mourning and three days of prayer for the victims.
On 24 August, the town of Barsalogho in Burkina Faso was the target of a terrorist attack which killed more than 150 people, including 22 Christians, according to local sources in contact with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). This was the third attack this month and one of the bloodiest in the history of the country, which has been suffering from Islamist terrorism since 2015.
According to different media reports, residents of the community of Barsalogho, around 30 km north of Kaya, capital of the Centre-Nord region, were digging defensive trenches to protect themselves against terrorist attacks, when more than 100 jihadists appeared on motorcycles and opened fire with automatic weapons on civilians and soldiers alike. Among the victims are said to be women, children and elderly people.
Local sources told ACN that the number of dead was so high that it was not possible to bury all the victims over the past three days.
Bishop Théophile Nare, of the Diocese of Kaya, described the incident as a “tragedy of unprecedented proportions since the beginning of the terrorist attacks”. In a message to the faithful the day after the devastating attack, he expressed his sympathy to the relatives and called for a day of mourning for the deceased on Wednesday, August 28.
In the statement sent to ACN, the bishop also called people to three days of intensive prayer to “make reparation for all attacks on human life” in which the blood of innocent people has been shed.
This latest massacre raises fresh and serious questions about security in the country. The attack is said to have lasted for hours and was the third in just a month in Burkina Faso. Previously, two terrorist attacks were carried out in the Province of Nayala in the Boucle du Mouhoun region. On August 4, armed men reportedly entered the village of Nimina, and abducted over 100 men between the ages of 16 and 60, whose current whereabouts is unknown. On August 20, local sources told ACN of attacks in the villages of Mogwentenga and Gnipiru, after which part of the population fled.
This latest wave of violence is part of a tragic series of attacks, which, since 2015, has plunged Burkina Faso into a deep crisis. Due to the increasing brutality and frequency of these attacks, the country is in a persistent state of insecurity and fear.
ACN calls for prayer for the victims of violence in Burkina Faso. The charity has carried out 76 projects in the country over the past year to provide assistance to those affected and to help the local Church in these difficult times.
By Sina Hartert.
