At least six people, mostly children, were killed and four others injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated on a road in mainly-Christian northern Burkina Faso on 1 August.
The victims were “nearly all children who were returning from grazing their livestock,” said a local in Ouahigouya, the capital of Yatenga Province, when a cart some of them were travelling in rolled over an IED.
Violence by Islamist extremists has surged in Burkina Faso in the past year, causing thousands to flee their homes. In May, Christians were among those targeted and killed when armed jihadists launched three separate attacks within 48 hours that left at least 58 dead.
The increase in vicious attacks targeting Christians began in April 2019 in the northern town of Silgadji when a pastor, his son and four members of his congregation were shot in cold blood for refusing to convert to Islam. Jihadists returned to the town in January 2020, killing at least ten Christian men the village marketplace.
