Armed assailants killed four Catholics and destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary in northern Burkina Faso, Catholic church officials revealed, the third deadly attack against Christians in the West African country in the span of two weeks.
This last attack happened in the diocese of Ouahigouya, and it confirms a trend towards increasingly sectarian violence amid a strengthening jihadist insurgency.
The parade with a statue of the Virgin Mary was moving through the town of Ouahigouya on Monday when “a group of terrorists intercepted the procession, killing four worshippers and burning the statue,” said a spokesman for the Ouagadougou Cathedral.
No one has claimed responsibility for the church attacks yet, but after gunmen killed a Catholic priest and five parishioners on Sunday, the government of Burkina Faso blamed “terrorist groups … attacking religion with the macabre aim of dividing us”.
Via France 24
