Burkina Faso: "Islamists" Massacre Catholics
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) reports that more than 150 people have been killed, many of them Catholics. There are many Catholics in Manni, although Muslims also live there.
The criminals first cut the mobile phone networks. Then they attacked the local market, where many people had gathered after the Eucharist. They opened fire indiscriminately, looted shops and set fire to several buildings, burning the people inside alive.
The next day, the attackers returned to attack the medical staff at the local hospital, killing many of the wounded.
Two days later, the terrorists overran Manni again, killing as many men as they could find.
Many of the victims were residents of nearby villages who had been displaced by the terrorists and had taken refuge in Manni.
Mgr Pierre Claver Malgo, Bishop of Fada-N'Gourma, described the attack as 'barbaric'.
For several years, Burkina Faso has been the country with the highest level of extremist violence in the Sahel. At the end of August, the country suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history in Barsalogho, 100 km west of Manni, where at least 400 people were murdered.
The criminals are trying to create a divide between Muslims and Christians, who have always lived together peacefully.
Until the military coup in January 2022, Burkina Faso had a puppet government closely linked to France, its former colonial power.
Like many West African countries, it maintained political, economic and security ties with France through agreements dating back to its independence in 1960.
France had a military presence in the country as part of its wider counter-terrorism operation in the Sahel, known as Operation Barkhane, aimed at combating Islamist insurgencies.
However, growing dissatisfaction with this relationship, partly due to France's failure to adequately address security issues, contributed to the political instability that culminated in the military coup.
A priest from Burkina Faso, who wished to remain anonymous, told Gloria.tv that Western countries are using the Islamist groups they are supposed to be fighting to destabilise the country.
The Islamist groups operating in the Manni region of Burkina Faso are Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an umbrella organisation linked to al-Qaeda. The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), a group linked to the Islamic State, is also active in parts of Burkina Faso.
Al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988 with the help of Western intelligence services to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan, channeled through Pakistan’s intelligence services. ISIS grew out of an al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq after the US invaded the country.
Picture: Acnuk.org, #newsChuuvzngqe