The so-called Islamic State group (IS) has belatedly said it carried out the 25 February attack on a Catholic church in north-eastern Burkina Faso, in which at least 15 people were killed.
IS issued the claim on 7 March through its weekly newspaper al-Naba, which offered a round-up of the group’s recent activities in the Sahel.
It said that IS militants armed with guns attacked a church in the village of Essakane in Oudalan province, near the border with Mali, during Sunday service.
“As the mujahidin entered the church gate, they opened fire on the Christians, killing over 15 of them,” the group said.
While IS regularly targets Christians and their places of worship in DR Congo and Mozambique, where it has active branches, such attacks by the group in Burkina Faso are not common. IS attacks there normally target armed forces.
On the same day as the church attack, unknown assailants attacked a mosque in eastern Burkina Faso, in the town of Natiaboani, reportedly killing dozens of people. While no group claimed responsibility for that attack, IS’s rival, al-Qaeda, claimed activity against the army in the same town that day.