Credit: Gary Raynaldo / United Nations logo emblazoned on window inside UN world headquarters in New York City.

By Gary Raynaldo          DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  – NEW YORK –   United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres  “strongly” condemned an attack carried out  by ‘armed terrorists’ in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso Sunday that left 24 civilians dead as they  attending services at a Protestant church. 

“The Secretary-General extends his deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of those killed.  He wishes a speedy recovery to the injured. He stresses that the perpetrators of this horrendous crime, and the series of others that have preceded it, must be brought to justice. The Secretary-General reiterates the commitment of the United Nations to support Burkina Faso in the fight against violent extremism and the achievement of sustainable peace and development.”

Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General

A group of “armed terrorists” entered Pansi in Yagha province and “attacked the peaceful local population, after having identified them and separated them from non-residents”, Col Salfo Kaboré told the media. The horrific attack  took place on Sunday during a weekly service, security officials said. Among reported dead were the church’s pastor. Some 18 persons were also wounded and several other citizens were reported kidnapped.

United Nations Offers Continued Support To Burkina Faso Amid Terror Attacks

The U.N. Secretary General  also reiterated the continued support of the United Nations  to the Governments of Burkina Faso and the other countries of the Sahel region in their efforts to fight terrorism and violent extremism.

West Africa Shaken By “Unprecedented” Extremist and Ethnic Violence:  UN Envoy

Credit: unowas /  Mohamed Ibn Chambas.  Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).

Violent Islamist attacks across the West African Sahel region have doubled every year since 2015, according to a recently published security brief by the African Center for Strategic Studies.  In 2019, there have been more than 700 such violent episodes, the ACSS brief reports.  Fatalities linked to these events have increased from 225 to 2,000 during the same period. This surge in violence has uprooted more than 900,000 people, including 500,000 in Burkina Faso in 2019 alone,  the brief notes.   Attacks are largely concentrated in central Mali, northern and eastern Burkina Faso, and western Niger.  Just last week, islamist militants killed at least 71 soldiers in an attack on a remote military camp in Niger near the border with Mali. The UN Security Council on December 16  held a briefing on the inter-communal violence and terrorism in West Africa.  Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the UN envoy for West Africa and the vast Sahel region, told the Security Council that in recent months, the region has been “shaken by unprecedented violence”.   An “horrific attack against the Inates military camp, in Niger, still haunts the region”, he asserted, adding that “relentless attacks on civilian and military targets have shaken public confidence”.  While acknowledging the nexus between terrorism, organized crime and intercommunal violence, Chambas argued the importance of distinguishing each as a driver of violence.