Aug. 15, 2019 | Juicy Ecumenism | By Scott Morgan
Since January 2019, twenty people have been killed and several churches have been destroyed by Islamist forces operating in the West African nation of Burkina Faso. During May of this year, it seemed as churches were being attacked on a weekly basis.
Some of the recent attacks were inspired by a video recording made by the head of the Islamic State (ISIS), Al-Baghdadi. In this recording, Al-Baghdadi urges attacks against French interests in the Sahel region of Africa. Deeply concerning is the conviction that the attacks in Burkina Faso appear to be part of ongoing efforts to locate a new base of operations in Africa for ISIS.
After a month of relative quiet in Burkina Faso, the alarm bells for the country have started ringing yet again. On 1 August 2019, Bishop Laurent Dabire who currently is the President of the Bishops Conference for Niger and Burkina Faso issued a call for the world to intervene and to stop what he called the massacres against Christians in Burkina Faso by foreign backed Islamist groups. Attacks such as these have been gradually increasing in scope since the ouster of former President Blaise Comparie in 2014. And it should be noted that in his remarks the bishop claimed that the Islamist militants are better armed than Burkina Faso’s security forces.