Sina Hartert and Maria Lozano
(ZENIT News / Burkina Faso, 11.05.2024).- “The attacks are multiplying. We ask for your fervent prayer. Pray for the victims and for the fearful survivors,” asked a priest from the Diocese of Fada N’Gourma in eastern Burkina Faso, speaking to the international pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
At the beginning of October, at least 150 people were killed by terrorists in Manni, in the same diocese. On 20 October, Ziéla and Kombembgo, two villages from the Saatenga parish in the Southeast of Fada N’Gourma, were attacked by about one hundred terrorists. At Ziéla, the terrorists appeared around 10 am. While the inhabitants were going about their business after Sunday prayer, some shots were fired. The men immediately tried to flee and hide because, as a local source explained to ACN, the terrorists “principally attack men of fighting age, and not women, children or old people”. However, “a young Christian girl who wanted to run away from her house tragically lost her life, killed in error, as the terrorists mistook her for an adult,” said a source, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
According to the same source, the terrorists set fire to many houses belonging both to Christians and Muslims. The targeted houses included one belonging to the catechist, who was outside the village when the attack took place. His wife, who had stayed home with their three young children, was mishandled, and their home was pillaged and then burned. “The family is safe and sound, and the fact that the husband was absent saved his life,” reported the same source to ACN.
Catechists are currently on the front line of the violence in the country, as it is they who are charged with overseeing the faithful in many villages. Not all of them have the same luck as the catechist from Ziéla, who was outside the village when the terrorists attacked: “Barely six months ago, Édouard Yougbaré, catechist in Pouargoguin, 7 km from Saatenga, was brutally killed, leaving behind a widow and eight children. His last words were: ‘Lord Jesus, come and save me! Lord Jesus, come and save me!’” recalls ACN’s source.
That same Sunday, 20 October, Kombembgo, a village located 12 km from Saatenga, was likewise targeted by the terrorists. According to information gathered by ACN, three members of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDP in French) and another civilian lost their lives during this attack.
The VDP, civilians who collaborate with the national armed forces, play a crucial role in the defence of unprotected rural communities, where the Burkinabe army finds it hard to intervene. “Thanks to the rapid reaction of the VDP which was able to eliminate some terrorists, these didn’t have time to set fire to the houses in Kombembgo,” explained the source. However, the involvement of the VDP carries big risks. This was demonstrated by an attack in Piéla, roughly 150 km from Saatenga, in northern Fada N’Gourma, on 19 October, just a day earlier. The village was attacked by more than 100 terrorists, who killed approximately 13 people, including two members of the VDP and a Catholic woman.
This raid seems to have been carried out in reprisal for the support given by the population to the VDP. “The women had offered a motorbike to the VDP for their struggle for peace, an action which displeased the terrorists,” explained a local source to ACN. “The attackers also set fire to 16 houses, all belonging to Catholic families, and unfortunately situated on a hill, which enabled the terrorists to approach Kouri without being detected in time,” he added. Essential infrastructure like the clinic, the chemist and the VDP post were likewise destroyed. The village’s two catechists were able to escape and are now internally displaced.
Kouri had already been the target of another terrorist attack on 1 June 2024, during which people lost their lives and houses were burned, which led to the VDP being set up to reinforce local security.
One of the local priests called for prayer for the victims and for peace. “Let us implore the Lord for peace to return to our country, and to all countries being struck daily by murderous attacks, including Mali and Niger, and to nations at war like Ukraine, Israel and Lebanon. May the prayer of St Francis of Assisi guide us: ‘Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me bring love.’”
These tragedies underline the urgency of the security situation in Burkina Faso, where terrorist attacks began in 2015, and continue to ravage communities, leaving in their wake more than two million internally displaced people.
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