From gold to blood: Essakane is a village in northeastern Burkina Faso, on the border with Niger and Mali, a place famous for its yellow metal mine. Today the predominant color is red, the red of the blood that was shed this morning during Mass in the Catholic Church when a group of terrorists attacked the faithful, killing at least fifteen of them. This was announced by the bishop of the diocese of Dori, the nearest city and capital of the Sahel region. Laurent Birfuré Dabiré told Vatican News that 12 of the victims died on the spot while three succumbed to their injuries.
Almost eight thousand deaths in one year
About 30% of Burkina Faso's 23 million inhabitants are Christians and 23% are Catholics. The country has been the scene of massacres by Islamist militias who have arrived from neighboring countries for years. Already in 2019, the Bishop of Dori, who today broke the news of the latest massacre, had sounded the alarm: “If the world continues to do nothing, the result will probably be the annihilation of the Christian presence in this area across the country.” In the year In 2023, according to the latest report from Human Rights Watch, there were almost 7,600 victims of jihadist violence, with a total of over two thousand attacks. Around two million people have been forced to flee their homes since 2016. In recent years, the groups Ansar-ul Islam and Jnim have increased their firepower especially in the north of the country, with attacks also taking place in the capital Ouagadougou. “The foreign militiamen were joined by local young people who, due to a lack of work and prospects, agreed to become jihadists,” said Bishop Dabiré in 2019. Today According to some analysts, the terrorists control around 50% of the territory.
Almost eight thousand deaths in one year
The situation gradually worsened. The massacres followed one another. On November 12, the European Union had called for an investigation into the massacre in the village of Zaongo in the central region, in which “unidentified gunmen” (as terrorists are called in modern parlance) killed seventy people, mostly elderly and children. The Christian minority is certainly a target of terrorists, but it is not the only one. Anyone who resists the militia members is exposed to violence.
The hand of Moscow
The authorities' response was ineffective. Governments themselves have been guilty of violence against civilians suspected of supporting the jihadists. Last September, a military drone killed at least twenty people who had gathered for a funeral in Bidi, in the north of the country. Since January 2022, Burkina Faso has been ruled by a military coup junta that is increasingly close to Russia. At the end of January, at least a hundred “military specialists” arrived in the country from Moscow. There could be hundreds of Russian soldiers on site. Their presence follows that of missions in neighboring countries such as the Central African Republic and Mali. The dissolution of Wagner has not changed the modus operandi of the mercenaries, whose goal is to control the mines in exchange for military support. Last year, the head of the junta, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, was closest to President Vladimir Putin in a group photo at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg.
Repression against civil society
While the government is unable to stop jihadist violence, it is intensifying repression against civil society that opposes the dictatorship. Also targeted are members of Balai Citoyen, the historic group of “citizens with brooms” that led to the overthrow of president and dictator Blaise Compaoré ten years ago after 27 years in power. The democratic interlude is a faint memory in Burkina Faso. In recent days, two members of the group, including a septuagenarian former minister, were “forcibly recruited,” in a punitive measure similar to those reserved in Russia for those who demonstrated for the death of Alexei Navalny. A humiliating video released by the government shows her in uniform with a rifle in her hand.
Not just Christians
Blood and gold. In the semi-desert areas of the north, the slaughter of Christians (and not only) continues. In Italy, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and the President of the Chamber of Deputies expressed their contempt. “Horror at the cowardly terrorist attack on Catholic believers during a Holy Mass in Essakane,” Tajani wrote in in need, numbering in the hundreds of millions in the world.” How can you disagree? Now Russia is the closest international entity to the Burkinabe rulers, which, as happened in Central Africa, is more interested in gold being mined than in blood not being spilled. And in the north of Burkina Faso and in neighboring countries, it's not just Christians who are being targeted. The Zaongo massacre left 70 people dead, mostly old people and children who did not wear a crucifix around their necks.