A group of gunmen in Burkina Faso attacked a Catholic church and killed six people, including the priest.
Around 9 a.m. Sunday about 20 to 30 gunmen entered the church in the town of Dablo and began shooting at the congregation as it tried to escape. The group then burned the church to the ground.
“There is an atmosphere of panic in the town. People are holed up in their homes, nothing is going on. The shops and stores are closed. It’s practically a ghost town,” the mayor of Dablo told AFP.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Burkina Faso has seen a dramatic spike in attacks linked to Islamist groups in the West African country. Last month, six people were killed at a Protestant church in the country and four more were killed that same month in another Catholic church in a nearby village.
Teachers and students have also been the target of attacks by Islamist groups that oppose Western education in recent months. Five teachers were shot to death in an attack Friday.
“These terrorist groups are now attacking religion with the macabre aim of dividing us,” a government statement released after the attack read.
Burkina Faso is 55-60% Muslim and roughly a quarter Christian. Some militant groups in the country have pledged loyalty to the Islamic State and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi mentioned Burkina Faso in a video released this month. It marked the first time the reclusive Baghdadi appeared on film in five years.
