Extreme Violence in Burkina Faso: Attack on a Catholic church by extremist group

This level of violence is seen in the attack of Burkina Faso Catholic church. The attack promoted by a group of 30 motorcyclist men, armed with rifles against the local christians, villagers and foreigners, showed that some nations are interested on close the doors to the modernity and regret to a level of a primitive living form.

During the rescue of the foreign victims, two special forces soldiers from France, one American and one South Korean were killed by kidnap and murdering. The assassination of the members raise a question about if the group is independent, is linked to ISIS or al-Qaeda.

Extreme right wing of Islamism is promoting a social disruption and is being more accepted in some countries that Christianity once obliterated. Christianity was always a segregational religion and the advent of Islamism as a religion that is opened to feithful people, promoted a level of terror and impose of religion by might.

The attack in Burkina Faso is opened to a level of security promoted by extreme violent gangs and armed people against foreigners and non-muslim.

The region of Sub-Saharian Africa is always raising to a level of extreme violence with murdering and raging attacks for ethnic conflicts between tribal rooted groups, and contaminated by a high level of criminal activities.

In last months, the country received lots of attacks and had many people killed, because dispute of political and ethnic positions.

Catholic church attack in Burkina Faso leaves at least 6 dead, including priest, reports say
https://www.foxnews.com/world/catholic-church-attack-burkina-faso-priest-killed

At least six people were killed -- including a priest -- after a Catholic church was attacked and then set ablaze Sunday by a group of armed men in the western African country of Burkina Faso, according to local reports.

The attack happened in the northern town of Dablo, not far from the volatile border with Mali, at the beginning of Mass, Radio France Internationale reported.

A security source told the radio network that Mass had just begun when a "group of some 20 to 30 armed men" approached on motorcycles.

The mayor of the village, Ousmane Zongo, told Agence France-Presse the gunmen then burst into the church.

“They started firing as the congregation tried to flee,” he told the news agency. “They burned down the church, then shops and a small restaurant before going to the health center where they searched the premises and set fire to the head nurse’s vehicle."

Zongo said the attack left the city "filled with panic," according to Reuters.

"People are holed up at home. Shops and stores are closed," he told AFP. "It's practically a ghost town."

One resident of the town told RFI it was the first time the village had been attacked.

"There was no sign of any threat to this town," the resident told the radio network.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, violent Islamic extremism has been increasingly destabilizing the country. A number of jihadist groups are known to operate the area.

Another attack on a Christian church in the region last month after Sunday services left six dead, including a pastor. The Islamic extremists also have targeted foreigners, abducting and killing a Canadian geologist earlier this year.

The attack came two days after the release of two hostages in Burkina Faso during a daring French special forces military operation that resulted in the deaths of two of their own soldiers. The hostages who were rescued, according to France, were a U.S. citizen, a South Korean national, and French nationals Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas.

While it is not yet clear who abducted the group and why, Burkina Faso – once considered a beacon of calm in the otherwise terror-teeming region – has been a growing hotbed for some time.

Over the past six months, at least 5,000 people have been killed in the Sahel – the sub-Saharan region of northern Africa – amid an escalation of inter-ethnic violence ranging from bombings to massacres to suicide attacks.

Fox News also reported last year that Al Qaeda too had gained a foothold in the region, spilling over the porous border from Mali with weapons pillaged from Libya after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2012.

Fox News Greg Norman, Hollie McKay and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Burkina Faso: More than 60 killed in ‘terrorist’ attacks and intercommunal reprisals in Arbinda
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/04/04/burkina-faso-attacks-arbinda-soum-60-killed/

Sixty-two people were killed this week in terrorist attacks and subsequent intercommunal clashes in north Burkina Faso, a minister has said.

“There were 62 deaths,” Simeon Sawadogo, minister for territorial administration, said of the violence between Sunday and Tuesday in Arbinda commune in Soum province in the Sahel region, near the Mali border.

“We have 32 dead because of the terrorists. We have 30 who died because of community conflicts, reprisals between Kouroumba, Peuls, Mossis etc,” Sawadogo said on Wednesday, April 3.

The militants “chased people and killed people,” Sawadogo said in his televised statement, adding that nine people were kidnapped.

Armed individuals on Sunday night stormed the village of Hamkan, seven km (four miles) from Arbinda, where they killed the village’s religious leader, his eldest son and his nephew, the minister said.

Infowakat reported that seven people were killed in that attack, while the Menastream risk consultancy placed the incident in Lele.

“Following the killing of Sheikh Werem, there were clashes between communities in Arbinda, which resulted in retaliation on both sides,” according to Sawadogo, describing a “deplorable situation.”

The minister said people from surrounding villages made their way to Arbinda after the violence.

“The security situation is such that no one is safe,” he said, insisting that extra safety measures had been put in place in the area.

“The intention of the terrorists is actually to create conflict between the different communities,” said Sawadogo, calling on people “not to fall into the trap by linking a community as the cause of our misfortune.”

One of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso has been battling an escalating wave of attacks over the last three years, beginning in the North region near the border with Mali.

The former French colony lies in the heart of the sprawling, impoverished Sahel, on the southern rim of the Sahara.

Attacks have spread to the East region, near the border with Togo, Benin and Niger, and to a lesser extent, the west of the country.

Most attacks are attributed to the jihadist group Ansar ul Islam, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM), which has sworn allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Both civilians and security forces have paid a heavy price, with the official death toll now standing at more than 300 since 2015, but the toll could be significantly higher.

According to an Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) analysis, violence by armed groups in Burkina Faso has spiked, with 499 fatalities reported from 124 direct civilian targeting events between November 1 and March 23, representing a 7,000% year-on-year rise.

Additionally, conflict events involving armed groups and reported fatalities from armed clashes have both risen by more than 200%, according to the ACLED analysis.

On December 31, Burkina Faso declared a state of emergency in provinces within seven of the country’s 13 administrative regions after 10 gendarmes were killed near the border with Mali on December 27.

In the face of the increasing attacks, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore on January 9 appointed newly promoted Brigadier General Moise Miningou as armed forces chief.

Later in January, Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba resigned, along with his government, according to a statement released by Kabore. Christophe Dabire was later appointed as prime minister. New ministers were later appointed, including Moumina Chériff Sy as defense minister, and Ousséni Compaoré as security minister.

Last week, France’s armed forces chief General Francois Lecointre said the rising number of jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso was “a source of concern.”

“It indicates a spread of the jihadist movement” to the south from Mali, he said.

France was stepping up its cooperation with Burkina Faso and was looking at ways of helping it combat jihadist encroachment in frontier zones, he said.

France currently has around 4,500 personnel deployed to its Operation Barkhane in the Sahel, which has a mandate for counter-terrorism operations across the region.

Two French SOF operators killed in Burkina Faso during hostage rescue operation
Petty officers Cedric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello killed in deadly raid in Burkina Faso

https://special-ops.org/49619/two-french-sof-operators-killed-in-burkina-faso-during-hostage-rescue-operation/

Two French, one American, and one South Korean citizen were abducted and taken to Burkina Faso, in West Africa.French citizens Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas, both of them tourists, were visiting a wildlife preserve in Benin when they were abducted on May 1.

Their tour guide was fatally shot and their car was burned. The South Korean and American hostages, both of them women, were held for 28 days. The US State Department did not release the American hostage’s name due to privacy concerns but said she was in her 60s. The French Foreign Ministry previously issued a travel guidance in the region.

It was unclear who the captors were, but terror organizations, like the Islamic State, have operated in the area. The captors were believed to be handing the hostages off to an al-Qaeda group in Mali. The French Gen. François Lecointre told reporters it would have been “absolutely impossible” to successfully conduct a rescue operation under those circumstances.

Around 4,500 French troops are deployed to the region after the country set out to eliminate ISIS activity in Mali in 2013. Twenty-six French troops have been killed since the conflict. The raid relied on intelligence from the US and France. The original objective was to rescue the two French hostages. French Defense Minister Florence Parly said that neither South Korea nor the US were “necessarily aware” of the abduction of their citizens, according to Reuters.

French officials, who were tracking the kidnappers, decided to strike after they set up a temporary camp.” France’s message is clear. It’s a message addressed to terorists,” Parly said after the raid, according to Reuters.

“Those who want to target France, French citizens know that we will find track them, we will find them, and we will neutralize them.”

French commandos launched their raid on Thursday night. The mission was personally approved by French President Emmanuel Macron. The commandos in the mission were part of Task Force Sabre, a contingent of troops based in Burkina Faso. It was unclear how many troops took part in the raid.During the onset of the mission, a lookout was killed after he spotted the approaching commandos roughly 30 feet away. The French commandos then hit the nearby shelters after heard the sounds of weapons being loaded.

Four of the kidnappers were killed and two reportedly escaped.

Petty officers Cedric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello joined the French Navy in 2004 and 2011, respectively.”France has lost two of its sons, we lose two of our brothers,” France Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. François Lecointre said.Bertoncello wanted to join the French Navy after graduating highschool, Jean-Luc, Bertoncello’s father, said to RTL.

“What he loved was the esprit de corps … he was doing what he wanted and he always told us not to worry … he was well prepared,” Jean-Luc reportedly said. “They did what they had to do. For him it ended badly, for the others, it was a successful mission.”