World Watch Monitor, May 2, 2019
Burkino Faso is long known for its peaceful co-existence. Over the past two years, however, attacks by Islamist militants, military operations, and waves of inter-communal violence have left hundreds dead and 135,000 displaced.
On 28 April, Pastor Pierre Ouédraogo, 80, and other members were chatting in the church yard. A dozen armed men arrived on motorbikes to storm the place.
“The assailants asked the Christians to convert to Islam, but the pastor and the others refused. They ordered them to gather under a tree and took their Bibles and mobile phones. Then they called them, one after the other, behind the church building where they shot them dead”.
When relatives had advised Pierre Ouédraogo to leave the area, he refused, saying he “would rather die for his faith than leave the community he has been serving for about 40 years”.