Burkina Faso church attack leaves 24 dead

Gunmen have killed 24 people and wounded 18 in an assault on a village church in northern Burkina Faso, officials say.

The regional governor said on Monday that the local pastor was targeted in the attack.

A group of “armed terrorists” burst into the village of Pansi, in Yagha, a volatile province near the Niger border,” and “attacked the peaceful local population after having identified them and separated them from non-residents,” Colonel Salfo Kabore said in a statement.

Burkina Faso has been beset by a rise in terrorist attacks as Takfiri militant groups with links to Daesh and al-Qaeda based in neighboring Mali seek to extend their influence over the porous borders of the Sahel, the arid scrubland south of the Sahara.

Roughly 55% to 60% of Burkina Faso’s population is Muslim, with up to a quarter Christian. The two groups generally live in peace and frequently intermarry.

In late April, unidentified gunmen killed a pastor and five congregants at a Protestant church, also in the north, suggesting the violence was taking a religious turn.

The government had already declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali following the rise in such deadly extremist attacks.