Four people were killed in an attack on a Catholic church in northern Burkina Faso, perpetrated on Sunday, May 26, 2019, in Toulfé, a village about twenty kilometers from Titao, the capital of the northern province of Loroum, reported Fides News Agency.
«The Christian community of Toulfe was the target of a terrorist attack gathered for Sunday prayers. The attack left four of the faithful dead,» said the Bishop of Ouahigouya, Justin Kientega, in a statement.
Eight heavily armed individuals arrived in the village around nine in the morning, aboard four motorcycles. They entered the church where the Catholic community had just gathered to attend mass. Three people died immediately, while another died as a result of wounds. Some people were also injured.
The attack follows the attacks on Sunday, May 12, against the parish of Dablo, during which an armed group killed Don Siméon Yampa and five faithful and that of May 13 against a Marian procession in Singa, with the death of four faithful and the destruction of the statue of the Virgin. On February 15, 2019, during an attack at a checkpoint in Nohao, on the border with Ghana, Fr. Antonio César Fernández Fernández, a Spanish Salesian missionary was killed.
«Faced with this disturbing wave of violence that blows not only on Burkina Faso but also on Niger, Mali, and Nigeria, we express our strongest condemnation and we want to assure our brothers and sisters affected by violence our solidarity, our prayer, and our compassion. Holding our assembly here in Burkina, we wanted to give you a sign of our effective and emotional closeness,» wrote the participants in the Third Plenary Assembly of Bishops of West Africa (RECOWA-CERAO) Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso.
