A protester holds up a Burkina Faso flag in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, in 2014. At least 15 people were killed in an attack by gunmen on Catholics gathered for Sunday Mass in a Burkina Faso village Feb. 25, 2024. (OSV News photo/Joe Penney, Reuters)
VATICAN CITY — After deadly attacks killed 15 people at a Catholic church and dozens more at a mosque in Burkina Faso, Pope Francis said places of worship must be respected.
"Recalling that hatred is not the solution to conflicts, the pope invites (people) to respect sacred places and to fight against violence with the aim of promoting the values of peace," said a telegram sent Feb. 26 to the president of the bishops' conference of Burkina Faso, Bishop Laurent Dabiré of Dori.
The telegram, written on the pope's behalf, was signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.
Speaking to Fides, a Vatican news agency, Bishop Dabiré reported that jihadists broke into the chapel in the small village of Essakane during a prayer service the morning of Feb. 25 and began shooting at men present but spared the women.
Twelve people were killed during the attack; three died later from their wounds and two others were injured, he said.
Since 2018 most Catholics have been forced to flee the area due to the violence of jihadist groups, the bishop said. "Only a few people remain who, in the absence of a permanent priest, gather on Sundays for a communal prayer led by a catechist," he said. Islamist military groups are estimated to control more than one-third of the country's territory
Pope Francis was "deeply saddened" to learn of the attack and "joins the families in mourning, expressing his closeness and sorrow," the telegram said. "His Holiness also expresses his sorrow to the Muslim community for the attack on a mosque in Natiaboani."
AFP reported that several dozen Muslims were killed in a Feb. 25 attack on a mosque in Natiaboani, where Islamist militants opened fire on people gathering for morning prayer.
The pope "prays for the repose of the deceased, entrusting them to God's mercy and for the healing of the wounded," the Vatican telegram said. "He asks the Lord to bring strength and consolation to all those affected by these tragedies."
Pope Francis invoked abundant blessings "on the sons and daughters of Burkina Faso, and on the nation as a whole," the telegram said.
Human Rights Watch reported a surge of religiously motivated attacks against Christians in the country in 2019. Father Joël Yougbaré, a Catholic priest, has been missing in Burkina Faso since March of that year.
— Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
At least 15 Catholics dead in attack during Mass in Burkina Faso
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DORI, Burkina Faso — At least 15 people were killed in an attack by gunmen on Catholics gathered for Sunday Mass in a Burkina Faso village Feb. 25, according to multiple news reports.
Twelve Catholics were dead at the scene in the village of Essakane, with another three dying while being treated at a health center, and two others wounded, according to a statement from Bishop Laurent Birfuoré Dabiré of the Diocese of Dori in Northern Burkina Faso, which includes Essakane.
"In these painful circumstances, we invite you to pray for the eternal rest of those who have died in the faith, for the healing of the wounded and for the consolation of sorrowful hearts," the bishop said in the statement, written in French and shared on the bishop's behalf by Father Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, the diocese's vicar general.
"We also pray for the conversion of those who continue to sow death and desolation in our country. May our efforts of penance and prayer during this period of Lent bring peace and security to our country, Burkina Faso," the bishop said.
According to AP, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but jihadis who have perpetuated similar violence are suspected of carrying it out. Christians in Burkina Faso have been increasingly targeted in recent years by terrorist groups amid political and social upheaval.
Burkina Faso is located in Africa's Sahel region, which separates North Africa from Sub-Saharan Africa and has one of the largest Christian communities in the region.
Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic organization that assists the church in places where Catholics are threatened by persecution and poverty, notes that the West African nation was long "considered an example of peaceful coexistence between religions." Of its population of 21 million, about 25% is Christian, and 60% is Muslim.
"Since 2015, however, the northern and eastern parts of the country have become a hotspot of violent extremists," Aid to the Church in Need reports, adding that "Burkina Faso is now the main theater of jihadist terror in the Sahel," the band of savanna that spans the width of Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
The violence and upheaval, which escalated following two coups in 2022, has resulted in more than 1 million people fleeing their homes, parishes and schools being deserted, and children forcibly recruited to be child soldiers.
The Feb. 25 attack came a week after Burkina Faso's bishops publicly expressed concern about the country's "situation of persistent insecurity" in a statement issued Feb. 18 at the end of their weeklong plenary assembly in the Diocese of Kaya.
"Overall, some thirty parishes and their associated structures (presbyteries, religious communities, health and education facilities, etc.) remain closed or inaccessible," the Catholic Bishops Conference of Burkina and Niger said in the statement, according to multiple reports.
"The corollary of this is the decline of socio-economic works in some places, the casualization of pastoral workers, the impoverishment of the population, especially in the affected areas, and the continuing phenomenon of internally displaced persons, which is causing socio-demographic upheavals in a noxious social climate," the statement said.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Burkina and Niger is currently led by Bishop Dabiré of Dori.
— OSV News