“It’s a beautiful message full of faith,” explains Maria Lozano. This activist with the NGO Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)) had the opportunity to speak to priests in Burkina Faso who told her that many residents, realizing that “their lives are in danger, are more inclined to return to Christianity in order to prepare themselves for eternal life, should the worst happen.”
For Maria Lozano, “This says a lot about the faith of these people, about the fact that for them this life on earth is not the ultimate end, that there is life after death, what we ourselves sometimes forget.”
This observation, which remains a paradox from a human perspective was also observed by Fr. Pierre Rouamba: “it is really striking to note that Christians, who had to some extent abandoned religious practice before the crisis, are returning to the faith at a time when terrorists are doing everything they can to eradicate all traces of Christianity,” remarks the cleric.
The fury of jihad has not managed to extinguish the fuse that still burns. “While terrorists prohibit Christians from entering churches, families gather in homes to rekindle the flame of faith through catechism sessions and common prayers, when there are no priests,” explains the religious.
“Burkina Faso is one of the countries where Christians are most persecuted in the world. The situation has really deteriorated spectacularly over the last ten years, it is difficult to travel by road, to the point that priests are considering opting for helicopter transport,” states Maria Lozano.
Facts corroborated by the 2023 religious freedom report published last June confirm that Burkina Faso is one of the 13 African countries where Christians are the most persecuted. It is a report which also lists Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Somalia, Eritrea, and Libya as the countries in Africa where it is most difficult to live as a Christian.
The land is experiencing a form of religious terrorism, which does not spare Muslims who refuse to join jihad: “On the spot, I noted that moderate Muslims suffered the same fate, but Christians remain the main target of attacks, because they are considered to be enemies because of their faith,” reports the ACN activist.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been caught in the spiral of violence perpetrated by jihadist groups affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) organization and Al-Qaeda. Violent acts causing more than sixteen thousand civilian and military deaths since 2015, according to the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), including more than five thousand since the start of 2023.
This violence has also led to the displacement of more than two million people within the country. In mid-July 2023, President and Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power a year ago through a coup d’état, deplored the “increasingly recurrent attacks against civilians,” judging that the jihadists showed “cowardice.”
Burkina Faso has been experiencing jihadist expansion in its territory for several months. But the escalation of violence has an unexpected effect in the eyes of observers: many Christians are returning to a religious practice that they had somewhat tended to abandon.