The AFP news agency has been informed by local and security sources that scores of Muslims were slain in an attack on a mosque in eastern Burkina Faso on the same day as another horrific attack on Catholics attending mass.
A security source told the AFP on Monday that “armed individuals attacked a mosque in Natiaboani on Sunday around 5am, resulting in several dozen being killed.”
A local resident confirmed over the phone that “the victims were all Muslims, most of them men” who had arrived for morning prayers.
“The terrorists entered the town early morning,” stated a second local source. As the faithful assembled inside the mosque for the daily morning prayer, they surrounded it and opened fire. Among them was a prominent religious figure who was shot.
“By these hordes who came in large numbers,” the source added, soldiers and members of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP), a civilian militia that backs the military, were also attacked.
In terms of the quantity of attackers and the extent of the damage they caused, the source called it a “large-scale attack.” Regarding the attack, the authorities have not yet responded.
Since 2018, armed groups have attacked Natiaboani on a regular basis. Natiaboani is a rural settlement located around 60 km (37 miles) south of Fada N’Gourma, the largest town in Burkina Faso’s eastern region. It is near the Benin and Togo borders.
At least 15 citizens were slain and two more injured in an attack on a Catholic church during Sunday service in northern Burkina Faso on the same day as the attack on the mosque, according to a senior church official.
The “terrorist attack” occurred in the village of Essakane while residents were assembled for Sunday prayer, according to a statement released by Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, the vicar of the Dori diocese.
The settlement of Essakane is located in the northeast of the nation, close to the shared borders of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. This area is referred to as the “three borders” zone.
The conflict that started in Mali in 2012 has killed over 20,000 people in Burkina Faso, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Over two million people have been displaced, according to the UN.
On Sunday, there were also attacks on a number of military detachments in Burkina Faso’s north and east. Security sources claim that hundreds of “terrorists” were “neutralized” during operations carried out in reaction to the attacks.
Attacks on houses of worship and religious leaders have often been attributed to insurgents.
A priest in Djibo was abducted in March 2019 and is currently missing. Cesar Fernandez, a Catholic missionary, was assassinated in the nation’s center in February 2018.
Three days after armed men halted the bus carrying the grand imam of the northern village of Djibo in August 2021 and abducted him, the man was discovered dead.