About 30% of the population of Burkina Faso is Christian; two-thirds of those are Roman Catholic. Like Christians in other African countries, the Christians of Burkina Faso are increasingly threatened: a previous report noted that “as many as 82 pastors, 1,145 Christians and 151 households have fled from violence in different locations in the Muslim-majority nation.” This report adds that “the number of Christians who had fled to the city of Kaya in Sanmatenga province was now about 2,640 and is thought to include hundreds of children.”
Yet the persecution of Christians in Burkina Faso and elsewhere continues to be largely ignored by the international media and human rights organizations. Please continue to pray for the victims, for a new determination among international authorities to take definitive action to end this persecution, and for the persecutors to soften their hearts and turn to Orthodox Christianity, which has yet to establish a presence in that suffering nation.
“Seven Christians hand-picked to be slaughtered by Islamist militants in Burkina Faso, says Barnabas source,” Barnabas Fund, September 5, 2019:
Seven people were identified as Christians and executed while others were freed after Islamist gunmen searched and questioned a group of civilians for evidence of their faith in Burkina Faso on 27 June, a Barnabas Fund contact revealed on 4 September.
“They laid everyone down, looked for signs of Christianity in their baggage. They also asked to see who were not Christians and they freed them, while slaughtering all the Christians numbering seven,” said the contact.
He said that crosses, Christian books and a New Testament were among the items the Islamists discovered among the Christians’ possessions.
“They declared that this is the way they will treat all Christians of the country … unless they become Muslims,” the Barnabas source added.
The 27 June massacre took place in Bani in the north-east of Burkina Faso and was the seventh in a spate of Islamist attacks targeting Christians in Burkina Faso that Barnabas has reported in 2019. At least 56 Christians were killed in the series of attacks between April and June.
The contact added that the Islamists are targeting church gatherings as well as political and local leaders who are favourable to Christians.
He said that the number of Christians who had fled to the city of Kaya in Sanmatenga province was now about 2,640 and is thought to include hundreds of children. The number seeking refuge in Kaya has more than doubled since June….
