Catholic Charity Receives Request to Keep in School Hundreds of Children Fleeing from Burkina Faso’s Volatile Areas

The food, he says, “saved many lives.”

According to ACN, the security situation in the West African nation that started experiencing terrorist attacks in 2015 has seen a slight improvement, though several regions continue to suffer from terrorism and misery. 

“As the new school term begins, young people remain at the center of these challenges,” ACN says.

The F.M.R member clarifies that in areas under terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Christians are generally threatened as much as the rest of the population.“The enemy is that of the whole nation, even if everyone is wary about who is who,”he said.

He says that some areas in Burkina Faso are still unsafe to stay, including the Fada-Ngourma region on the borders with Togo and Benin.

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Owing to the insecurity, none of the villagers in the areas affected are able to return home as the roads and the fields are mined. 

Neither is it possible to get from Fada to Niger, Br.Toughma says, and explains, “We ourselves, who were operating in this zone have had to leave it, but we go there from time to time to celebrate the Eucharist and bring some aid because there is a small remnant – of Christians and non-Christians – who still live there.”

He however clarifies that there are no Priests in places that remain volatile.

“We can only get to Pama or Kompienga by air or by army convoy because there are terrorists present in the zone,” explains Br.Toughma. 

He says that the thickness of the forest which surrounds Pama adds to the complexity and permits the terrorists to easily take control of the zone and prepare their operations even if the army tries to take action. 

“The army,” he says, “has endeavoured to make an area safe so that the population which has remained can cultivate some plots of ground in Kompienga. That has helped a lot this year, because since 2022 that has been impossible.”

The F.M.R member says that the brothers’ novitiate, is still relocated in Togo, and explains, “It’s not that we don’t have vocations. We have, but some people don’t have the courage to cross the border and others prefer to stay in the safe zones.” 

Br.Toughma also confirms a slight improvement in the country’s security situation, saying, “There is certainly a lull, but the strength of the terrorists is unpredictability.”

“The army is making efforts, but the evil remains very deep and the new means which the terrorists have at their disposal complicates things,” he says, adding that before, the terrorists attacked with bombs, and are now placing bombs remotely controlled by infrared.

The terrorists also use drones and decoys to distract the attention of the soldiers and make them waste their ammunition, he says, but explains that generally, the population has been able to reestablish itself.

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During his recent visit to the international headquarters of the Catholic charity in Königstein, Germany, Br.Tougham also presented to ACN the urgent need for spiritual and psychological accompaniment for the population, noting that the people have endured numerous traumas connected to the scenes of terror that the people have lived through.

To address the impact of past traumas and help people move forward, Br. Toughham explained that “the Missionary Brothers of the Countryside would like to found a centre 50 kilometres east of Ouagadougou to respond to this suffering.” 

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