(CL) – A Protestant church in the western African nation of Burkina Faso was targeted by militants in an attack on Sunday, April 28, 2019. The pastor of the church and two of his sons are believed to be among the six people killed in the attack. “The attackers were on motorbikes. They fired in the air before aiming at the members of the congregation,” a witness told Agence France-Presse.
According to government spokesman Remy Fulgance Dandjinou, this is the first attack of this kind on a church in the country. While militants have targeted mosques and religious leaders in the violence that has been escalating since 2015, this is the first time the militants have carried out an attack on a church. In December, the government declared a state of emergency in several of the northern provinces of the country, which border Mali, due to such attacks. This most recent attack took place in a small northern town called Silgadji. READ MORE
