With terrorist takeovers in Burkina Faso villages, ‘people are really suffering’

“As priests, we are at great risk."

Burkina Faso is a small, landlocked country in West Africa. Colonized by the French in the late 1800s, the country gained independence in 1960.

Despite being a leading producer of cotton and gold, Burkina Faso today remains one of the least developed countries in the world. 

And in recent years the nation has been plagued by terrorism and violence, which has left Christians in particular facing devastating persecution. 

A group of people pray outside a Catholic church in Burkina Faso. Credit: Joerg Boethling / Alamy Stock Photo.

Ordained in Burkina Faso in 2008, Fr. Jacques Sawadogo served in his home diocese of Ouahigouya for eight years.

He was then sent by his bishop to Europe, where he is now studying dogmatic theology, but he returns home at least once a year. 

Each time he does so, he said, the situation has grown worse. 

“In 2016, I could travel everywhere in Burkina Faso, but now, when I go home, I have to be very careful,” he told The Pillar. “I can still travel from the capital to Ouahigouya, but 40 km from the city it is already too dangerous.”

Over the past decade, Burkina Faso has been transformed from a country known for its interreligious and inter-ethnic harmony to one racked by terrorism. Today, the government only exercises control over about 60 percent of the country’s territory, with Islamist terror groups operating freely in the nation’s north and east. 

Christians have been among those most affected by the terrorism in Burkina Faso. Already a minority, Christians in the affected regions now face terrible persecution. 

“The situation for Christians is complicated,” Sawadogo explained. “In the big cities people can still live their faith as they want. But in the small cities and villages the terrorists are making the lives of the Christians very difficult. They are chased away from their villages, and many churches have been burned. In my diocese there are three or four parishes which are cut off.”

“When the terrorists arrive, they order women to wear the veil, and men to grow a beard and cut their trousers short. If people do not want to abide, they are given 24 hours to leave, or they will be killed, and their houses burned.”

Sometimes, rather than make demands, terrorists drive into a village and shoot everyone on sight.

In a string of attacks over the course of three days in October, at least 600 people were killed, with scores murdered in other attacks since then. 

Christians are not the only victims, Sawadogo noted. 

“When the terrorists come, it is not only the Christians who are persecuted or killed, but also Muslims who just want to live their life, or who have good relations with Christians, or who are just not ‘Muslim enough’.”

Local Muslim leaders have been vocal in speaking out against the terrorists, Sawadogo said, but the stress from years of violence has led to a climate of suspicion that did not exist before. 

“In general, the relationship is still good. The majority of Muslims and Christians are on good terms. Many families are mixed, including my own. The problem is always with the radicals,” he said. “But this situation has also affected our relationships. People have become more careful with each other. When one speaks, one is always careful with what one says, because you do not know who is whom, who might do what. It has sown suspicion among the population.”

The rise in terrorism and violence has been noted in a recent report by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need.

Entitled “Persecuted and Forgotten?,” the report highlights the situation of persecuted Christians in 18 countries designated “countries of particular concern.”

This year’s report found that persecution of Christians has worsened in 11 of the 18 countries, remained unchanged in six, and improved only in Vietnam. 

Noting a deterioration of conditions in Burkina Faso, “Persecuted and Forgotten?” points to incidents in the past year such as the rape and torture of several Christian women who tried to get through a terrorist roadblock, the attack on a Catholic church in Essakane, the mass expulsion of 340 Christians from the northeastern village of Debé, and the murder of two Debé teenagers who defied a prohibition on going to school.

Priests are particularly targeted in terrorist takeovers, Sawadogo told The Pillar.

“As priests, we are at great risk. There have already been some who were killed, and others kidnapped. Some have been released, but one - Joel Yougbaré - has been missing for five years. We don't know if he is alive or not.”

Sawadogo said one of his friends, a local parish priest, was kidnapped while traveling locally. 

“We all prayed for him, and I think that because he was known in the parish as a good man, as someone who is looking for peace, many people asked the terrorists to please not to hurt him. Thanks be to God, he was released, but it was very traumatic.”

“When he talks about it, he always says that based on what he experienced, and the conversations he overheard, this problem is about more than guns, it runs very deep. They believe they are rendering a good service if they kill us, because we are disbelievers. He says we really must pray for the conversion of these people.”

Catechists are also targets for terrorists, he noted.

When a parish gets cut off from the rest of the diocese, it becomes almost impossible for the priest to visit, except when he joins a military convoy. In these situations, catechists play a major role in keeping the faith alive, he said.

“In Burkina the catechist is really a witness to the faith. Because the catechist is there with his family and children, to represent the Church. They conduct the prayers when the priest is not there, they do catechism, and bury the faithful, so the catechist is really a central person in our villages.”

As a result, many catechists also face persecution, and some have also been killed, he lamented. 

Islam first arrived in Burkina Faso in the 15^th century, whereas the first Christian missionaries arrived only in 1900. Though Christians are only about 25 percent of the population, they have offered significant contributions to the life of the country. 

“Christian missionaries were the first to introduce Western-style school and health systems in Burkina,” Sawadogo said. “That is why many of the first educated people were Christians, and why many Christians were prominent in administration. Today, the Church is still playing a big role, because of Catholic schools, Catholic universities and Catholic hospitals, and the people really listen to the bishops.”

Unlike in other African countries, religious allegiance is not divided along tribal lines, with one notable exception. “In Burkina you can find Christians in all the tribes, except among the Fulanis, in the far north,” Sawadogo said.

The Fulanis are traditionally nomadic herders, and one of the most influential tribes in the region, which has historically been involved in conflicts with other, more settled tribes, living out a longtime dispute for land between herders and farmers. 

Over the past years, however, after the collapse of Libya flooded the region with automatic weapons, these conflicts have become increasingly deadly, and there is suspicion that many Fulanis have become easy prey for Jihadist movements that play upon their Islamic identity to aggravate pre-existing rivalries. 

Sawadogo warned against the tendency to equate an entire tribe with terrorism. 

“We know that according to reports, many of the terrorists who have been captured or killed are from this tribe. But we don't want to say that terrorism equals Fulanis, that is very dangerous, because among the terrorists you also find people from different tribes, including mine.”

“In Burkina the problem began in the north, where Fulanis are the majority. But we also have to ask ourselves, what did we do with this area? Did we neglect it? Leave it without education? When that happens, people can be easily manipulated,” he said.

The situation of rising terrorism is not exclusive to Burkina Faso, but is affecting the whole of western Sahel - a region which includes Nigeria, Niger, and Mali. 

As a result, Sawadogo said, an international response is warranted, but has proven difficult to coordinate.

As a former colonial power, which still exerts influence in the area, France deployed troops in Burkina and Mali to counter terrorists, but the efforts were unsuccessful. Eventually, larger geopolitics came into play and the African countries expelled Western forces, bringing in Russian mercenaries instead, consolidating Moscow’s influence on the continent. 

“The country is now so oppressed that any country that offers help is welcomed,” Sawadogo said. 

“Sometimes the impression in the West is that we should not have contact with some countries, but they tried with the French military, they tried with the Germans, and it did not work. Personally, I hope it works. If this collaboration brings peace, then thanks be to God. Because people are really suffering, they are dying, and when you are dying you don't look at the face of the person coming to help you. And the situation is so deep and complicated that it is difficult to say that you don't want help.”  

Asked what Catholics around the world can do to help Burkina Faso,  Sawadogo said the most important answer is prayer. 

“One of the greatest gifts you can give us is to pray for us. Because we are believers, even those who come with guns to fire on the people, they claim to be doing it in the name of Allah. So, pray that God may touch our hearts, and put in the heart of each person the yearning for peace.”

“Secondly, what you can do is support the actions of all those who are looking for peace, especially the actions of the Church,” he continued.

“Many of those who flee from the villages are welcomed in the parish houses, and we do not ask them if they are Catholic, Muslim or Protestant, we welcome everybody, because they are in need. The Church provides medical care and education to the displaced, and many organizations, such as ACN, are helping us to do that.”