Burkina Faso: 14 people killed in gun attack at church during Sunday mass

From Sky News and the Telegraph

At least 14 people including teenagers have been shot dead at a church in Burkina Faso during Sunday mass. 

The victims were attending a service at a Protestant church in the town of Hantoukoura, one of the sources told AFP, putting the death toll at “more than 10”.

Around 10 “heavily armed individuals” carried out the attack in the village near the border with Niger. . .(an area where)  places of worship have already suffered several Islamist assaults, security sources said.

Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore tweeted: “I condemn the barbaric attack against the Protestant Church of Hantoukoura in the department of Foutouri, which left 14 dead and several wounded. I offer my deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded.”

The poor West African country has suffered a series of attacks on Christian targets since February, leaving 21 dead before Sunday’s attack. Burkina Faso’s population is around two-thirds Muslim and one-third Christian.

An Islamist insurgency … this year has ignited ethnic and religious tensions, leaving large parts of the country ungovernable, especially in northern areas bordering Mali. Jihadist groups target Christian clerics as well as Muslim ones they do not consider sufficiently radical. Last month, gunmen opened fire on a convoy of buses carrying mine workers in the Est region, killing 39 people.