by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Amid intensifying attacks on civilians in Burkina Faso, al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist insurgents last month stormed a Christian Alliance Evangelical church service in the town of Sanaba and murdered 26 worshippers by tying them up and slitting their throats, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
Local sources and videos released by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terror group which carried out the attack on the church show that the insurgents murdered around 400 other civilians during a campaign of slaughter that took place in the towns of Barsalogho in the north and Sanaba in the west on August 25, CP reports.
The deadly insurgency in Burkina Faso began in 2012 and has displaced more than 2 million people amid rampaging violence: Burkina Faso ranks 20 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. The insurgents are intent on destabilizing the government and establishing their version of extremist Sharia law.
“We are witnessing an incredibly concerning surge in Islamist violence in Burkina Faso,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement last week.
“The Islamist armed groups’ massacres of villagers, worshipers, and displaced people are not only war crimes but a cruel affront to human decency.
“The leaders of the Islamist armed groups should immediately end these deadly attacks on civilians,” Human Rights Watch said.