France24 reported on 9 March 2020 that at least
43 people were killed in attacks on two villages in the northern part of the country. According to The Guardian reporting on 17 February 2020, Islamic militants killed 24 Christians (including the local pastor) during a
Sunday service at a Protestant church in Pansi in Yagha Province in the north of the country. A further 18 Christians were injured and some were kidnapped. Crux cited a
statement by Burkina Faso"s bishops" conference on 19 February 2020, confirming that "Catholic parishes, schools and dispensaries had been forced to close because of the "˜widening field of action of terrorism"."
According to a
statement by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on 21 February 2020: "In Burkina Faso, the latest attacks by militants on civilians and local authorities have been forcing a daily average of more than 4,000 people to flee their homes and search for safety since 1 January. So far, 765,000 people have already been displaced - more than 700,000 in the last 12 months. This is a 16-fold increase compared to January 2019. An estimated 150,000 people have fled in the last three weeks alone."
Yonas Dembele, Persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "Burkina Faso faces an alarming increase in violent Islamic militancy, in communal violence and in humanitarian needs. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Mourabitoun and the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have all been active and Christians and churches in the north of the country are finding themselves increasingly targeted. The continuous attacks not only highlight the strength of the jihadists, but also the fact that the government is losing ground in the fight against them. It is imperative that the international community and the government of Burkina Faso counter this threat in a more urgent and comprehensive way than ever before."
