A Catholic boy from Ouagadougou.
The local cattle market in Ouagadougou.
Terror continued to hold Burkina Faso firmly in its grip in 2024. Two-thirds of the country is now affected by violence. In 2019, believers and churches were targeted by terrorist attacks for the first time. Since then, Burkina Faso has become the hotspot of a violent conflict waged by Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State throughout the Sahel region. Across the country, roads are blocked by terrorists, some two thousand schools are now closed and more than two million people are internally displaced. The situation for the local Church contin- ued to worsen throughout the reporting year. In many places, Christians are being killed or kidnapped. People have been forcibly expelled from many parishes, while church work is severely restricted in others. Our local project partners re- port that priests, religious and the faith- ful are increasingly targeted by jihadists and that the frequency and brutality of attacks are increasing. Catechists, priests and dedicated laypeople are especially
vulnerable, with men being particularly targeted for murder. A Christian name or a cross pendant on a necklace is often enough to justify a murder. In areas under terrorist control, women and girls are forced to wear full veils, regardless of their religious back- ground, in order to avoid becoming targets of attacks and kidnappings. Nevertheless, the local Church also has some good news to announce: despite the extreme violence in the country, the number of religious vocations in- creased in the reporting year. Our help is therefore needed even more urgently than before. To this end, we supported the training of priests and religious and secured the livelihood of priests through Mass stipends. We also helped with the purchase of vehicles for pas- toral care and provided emergency aid for Christian villages where the local population has had to flee under the pressure of terrorists.
» When you get up in the morning, you don’t know whether you will still be alive in the evening. «
Father Bertin Namboho from the Diocese of Nouna
ACN Activity Report 2024 | 51 Africa – Burkina Faso |
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