In the wake of violence against a worshiping congregation in the town of Hantoukoura in Burkina Faso on 1 December, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit condemned the attack on innocent people gathered to worship on the first Sunday in Advent.

“It is an attack on our one human family when people cannot gather to worship without fearing for their lives,” said Tveit. “We extend condolences to those who lost loved ones, to those living in fear and who suffer under the lack of freedom of religion, and to the many people displaced because they are in imminent and constant danger.”

In November, the WCC and the ACT Alliance, in a joint letter to Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, expressed concern for developments affecting the security and human rights of many of the nation’s people.

AT LEAST 14 KILLED IN THE ATTACK

At least 14 people were killed after gunmen opened fire inside the church in Burkina Faso.

The victims were attending a service at a church in Hantoukoura, in the eastern part of the country on Sunday, December 1.

The identity of the gunmen is not known and the motive is unclear.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the country over the past few years, mostly by extremist groups, sparking ethnic and religious tensions especially on the border with Mali.