Nine people were killed when suspected jihadists attacked a mosque in northeastern Burkina Faso, local sources said Thursday.
The attack happened at around nightfall on Wednesday in the village of Goulgountou in Burkina’s Sahel region, when assailants arrived on motorbikes and herded worshippers inside the mosque, local media outlets reported.
“They separated out the women, children and elderly and then made sermons to try to convince worshippers of abandoning” their form of faith, a source said.
Goulgountou is located close to the gold mining town of Falagountou, which lies near the border with Niger.
The area has suffered several incursions by suspected jihadists since the start of the week, the sources said.
Thousands of people have died and more than two million people have fled their homes since terrorists began launching attacks on Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
