The Bishop of Dori, Burkina Faso, said this week that violent Muslim groups are trying to impose Islam on the whole country, destroying entire villages in the process.
Bishop Laurent Dabiré, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Burkina Faso and Niger, told the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need that “50 percent of the country is occupied and controlled by terrorist groups” that “explicitly aim to impose Islam on the whole country, including through the use of terrorism.”
This attempt at Islamization of Burkina Faso “implies the suppression of the current society, which is multi-religious, characterized by dialogue and coexistence,” Bishop Dabirá said. “Terrorists want to eradicate this free society and all those who do not profess their own kind of Islam, including Muslims, which means that terrorism is now aimed at society as a whole.”
Last February, for example, a gang of some 30 Islamic terrorists stormed a Catholic seminary on motorcycles in eastern Burkina Faso, burning two dormitories and an automobile and destroying a crucifix.
“They told the seminarians that they should go now, because they will come back and, if any remain, they will be killed,” Aid to the Church in Need noted at the time.
The bloodiest attack this year took place last May when Islamic extremists slaughtered more than 50 people in an assault near the commune of Madjoari in eastern Burkina Faso.
Soldiers loyal to Burkina Faso’s latest coup leader Capt. Ibrahim Traore gather outside the National Assembly as Traore was appointed Burkina Faso’s transitional president in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Friday Oct. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Kilaye Bationo)
Residents of Madjoari attempting to flee a jihadist blockade of their village were “targeted” by the gunmen near a bridge, where they were shot to death, according to Colonel Hubert Yameogo, governor of the eastern region. One witness noted that the gunmen intercepted and then executed the victims, all of whom were male.
The population of Burkina Faso “is exhausted and many mourn the loss of family members,” Dabiré said in his interview this week. “Whole villages have been destroyed and this contributes to breaking down the spirit of the people.”
“Christmas has always been a moment of truce as well as joy,” the bishop said. “People gathered for Mass, even if some didn’t come because they were afraid. We understand that and we don’t ask people to be braver than they can be.”
“Christmas is the time to pay tribute to all the victims of this war and to pray together for the return of peace,” he added.
Dabiré said that the consequences of this “wave of ferocious violence over the last seven years” have been terrible and Christian pastors can no longer move about as before.
“Our range is much smaller, because terrorists occupy two-thirds of the territory of the Sahel,” he said. “Practically only the provincial capitals remain.”
Three out of six of his own parishes in the diocese of Dori have been closed down because, due to the presence of terrorists, “the parishioners themselves ask that their priests be sent to a safe place,” he said.
The bishop has also organized pastoral care for internally displaced persons, who today number some two million in Burkina Faso.
“This is a difficult moment but I also see some graces: in this situation we are united!” Dabiré said, noting that the radio has been a great help to reach the displaced, and when communications are completely cut off, they try to make use of humanitarian and military convoys “to send short written messages to those who are isolated.”