Suspected terrorists have killed a pastor and four churchgoers in northern Burkina Faso, a state-owned radio station reported on Monday.

The attack on a Protestant church occurred in the village of Silgadji in the northern province of Soum, said the broadcaster.

The motive behind the attack remained unclear on Monday, but Burkina Faso regularly suffers attacks from radical groups.

The attack took place days before German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is scheduled to visit Burkina Faso.

Merkel will arrive on Wednesday for a state visit in the capital, Ouagadougou. </s> Suspected terrorists have killed a pastor and four churchgoers in northern Burkina Faso, a state-owned radio station... </s> Five people, including a pastor died in an attack on a church in Burkina Faso, security and local sources said Monday in a country which has seen a surge in killings blamed on jihadists.

Sunday’s assault in the small northern town of Silgadji was the first on a church in the impoverished west African nation.

“Unidentified armed individuals have attacked the Protestant church in Silgadji killing four members of the congregation and the pastor. At least two other people are missing,” a security source told AFP. </s> May 12 (UPI) -- Attackers killed six people attend mass at a Catholic church in Burkina Faso on Sunday morning, officials said.

Witnesses said the priest and five churchgoers were killed and several others were injured in the attack on the Catholic Church of Dablo in the landlocked West African country, VOA Africa reported.

"They were about 40 on motorcycles," a witness said. "They made everyone lie down, executed five before torching the church."

The attackers stormed the mass on Sunday morning and then proceeded to set fire to the church and surrounding shops.

Burkina Faso has experienced religious terrorist attacks since April 2015 and last month six people, including a pastor, were killed by assailants at a Protestant church in the community of Sigadji.

The population of the country is 61.5 percent Muslim, 23.3 percent Roman Catholic and 6.5 percent Protestant, according to the 2010 census. </s> Unidentified gunmen killed one pastor and five congregants in an attack on a Protestant church in northern Burkina Faso on Sunday, government spokesman Remy Fulgance Dandjinou said on Monday.

Burkina Faso has been beset by rising Islamist violence this year, but the attack was the first of its kind on a church in the religiously tolerant West African country, Dandjinou told Reuters. </s> At least 28 killed in 'terrorist attacks' on Burkina Faso army HQ, French embassy

Unidentified gunmen killed one pastor and five congregants in an attack on a Protestant church in northern Burkina Faso on Sunday, government spokesman Remy Fulgance Dandjinou said Monday, in the latest violence to rock the formerly peaceful west African nation.

Sunday's raid took place in the small northern town of Silgadji near Djibo, the capital of Soum province.

"Unidentified armed individuals have attacked the Protestant church in Silgadji, killing four members of the congregation and the main pastor," a security source told AFP.

"At least two other people are missing," the source added.

It was the first attack on a church since violence erupted in Burkina Faso in 2015.

Former colonial ruler France has deployed some 4,500 troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces try to flush out terrorist groups.

"The attack happened around 1 p.m., just as the faithful were leaving the church at the end of the service," a member of the church who did not want to be identified told AFP.

"The attackers were on motorbikes. They fired in the air before aiming at the members of the congregation," the witness added.

Burkina Faso has suffered from increasingly frequent and deadly attacks attributed to a number of terrorist groups, including Daesh terror group's Greater Sahara branch.

The raids began in 2015 in the north before targeting the capital Ouagadougou and other regions, notably in the east.

A total of 350 people have been killed since 2015 -- mainly in hit-and-run raids -- according to an AFP tally.

The terrorist groups regularly target both Muslim and Christian clerics, mainly in the north.

In February, a Spanish Catholic priest, Father Cesar Fernandez, was killed in a raid attributed to terrorists in Nohao in the center of the country. He was returning from the adjoining country of Togo when it happened.

Fernandez, 72, had been working in Africa since 1982 for the Salesians of Don Bosco order.

In March, gunmen abducted Catholic priest Father Joel Yougbare from Botogui, near Djibo, in the north. The Catholic Church has not yet confirmed reports that his body has since been found.

Several imams, targeted by the terrorists for supposedly collaborating with authorities, have also been killed in the north, security sources say.

But religious leaders are not the only people targeted by the terrorists. On Friday, terrorists attacked a village school in Maitaougou, in the eastern province of Koulpelogo, killing five teachers and a municipal worker.

Human Right Watch's Sahel director Corinne Dufka recently said that the surge in terrorist violence and a government crackdown had "forced tens of thousands of villagers to flee since early 2019."

"Scores of people have been murdered in what amounts to a dramatic deterioration in the rights situation in northern Burkina Faso," she said last month.

Dufka said villagers live in fear as both the terrorists and government troops "have demonstrated utter disregard for human life."

Around 4.3 million people have been driven from their homes in the worsening violence that has engulfed the entire Sahel region, including 1 million over the past year, according to U.N. humanitarian officials. </s> 3 dead in new attack on Burkina Faso church

OUAGADOUGOU; Three people were killed Sunday at a Catholic church in northern Burkina Faso in the latest in a series of attacks on Christian targets in the region, a security source said.

“Heavily armed individuals attacked the church... as the faithful were celebrating Sunday mass” in the town of Toulfe, the source said, adding that three people were killed. Last week gunmen killed four Catholics in a religious procession, the day after a priest and five parishioners were murdered at mass. Also last week, French special forces freed four foreign hostages in the former French colony during an overnight raid that cost the lives of two soldiers.

Burkina Faso’s population is around two-thirds Muslim and one-third Christian. The semi-desert country has suffered from increasingly frequent and deadly attacks attributed to a number of jihadist groups. </s> Three people were killed Sunday at a Catholic church in northern Burkina Faso in the latest in a series of attacks on Christian targets in the region, a security source said.

"Heavily armed individuals attacked the church... as the faithful were celebrating Sunday mass" in the town of Toulfe, the source said, adding that three people were killed.

Last week gunmen killed four Catholics in a religious procession, the day after a priest and five parishioners were murdered at mass.

Also last week, French special forces freed four foreign hostages in the former French colony during an overnight raid that cost the lives of two soldiers.

Burkina Faso's population is around two-thirds Muslim and one-third Christian.

The semi-desert country has suffered from increasingly frequent and deadly attacks attributed to a number of terrorist groups, including Daesh terror group's Greater Sahara branch.

The raids began in 2015 in the north before targeting the capital Ouagadougou and other regions, notably in the east.

Nearly 400 people have been killed since 2015 -- mainly in hit-and-run raids -- according to an AFP tally.

Terrorist groups have targeted both Christian and Muslim clerics in a country where traditionally both religions have co-existed peaceably.

France has deployed 4,500 troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces flush out terrorists. </s> The killing came as a result of a fresh attack on a Catholic church in Toulfe, northern Burkina Faso.

"The attack, which took place around 09:00 (local and GMT), killed at least three and injured several people," the AFP reported.

The latest attack comes after media reported that six people, including a priest, were killed on 12 May in an assault on a Catholic church in Dablo, northern Burkina Faso.

The attacks comes as the authorities of Burkina Faso have launched a massive anti-terrorist operation in the eastern and central-eastern regions of the country, Sputnik news reports.
Six people are killed when terrorists storm a church in the Soum Province, Burkina Faso. The victims are the pastor, two of his sons and three other worshippers.