A Spanish priest, Fr. Fernando Fernández, was stabbed to death, and another person injured on Friday evening, May 17, 2019, in Don Bosco center of Bobo-Dioulasso in the Southwest of Burkina Faso, according to Fides News Agency.
During lunch, a former cook who worked in the facility for seven years attacked the Spanish religious with a knife and killed him. A second priest of Togolese origin was injured in the accident. Fr. Germain Plakoo-Mlapa, director of studies, was immediately transported to the hospital and is out of danger. The killer was immediately arrested by the police.
From the first investigations, it seems that the cook wanted to take revenge for having been sacked two months ago.
Fr. Fernández was the treasurer of the Don Bosco center in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second city of Burkina Faso, located in the south-western part of the country, in the province of Houet, about 300 km west of the capital Ouagadougou. In Bobo Dioulasso, since 1994, the Salesians have set up: an assistance center for street boys and girls, a literacy center and a professional training center with over 300 students.
The killing of the Spanish Salesian and the injury of the Togolese confrere is only the latest episodes in the country’s religious communities. On February 15, another Spanish Salesian father, Fr. Antonio César Fernández Fernández had been killed in a jihadist attack perpetrated forty kilometers from the southern border of Burkina Faso .
During the past week, within 24 hours, two very serious attacks were committed against the Catholic community. On the first, May 12, against the parish of Dablo during which an armed group killed Don Siméon Yampa and five faithful; the second on May 13 against a Marian procession in Singa, with the death of four faithful and the destruction of the statue of the Virgin
