At least six people were killed -- including a priest -- after a Catholic church was attacked and then set ablaze Sunday by a group of armed men in the western African country of Burkina Faso, according to local reports. The attack happened in the northern town of Dablo, not far from the volatile border with Mali, at the beginning of Mass, Radio France Internationale reported. A security source told the radio network that Mass had just begun when a "group of some 20 to 30 armed men" approached on motorcycles. The mayor of the village, Ousmane Zongo, told Agence France-Presse the gunmen then burst into the church. “They started firing as the congregation tried to flee,” he told the news agency. “They burned down the church, then shops and a small restaurant before going to the health center where they searched the premises and set fire to the head nurse’s vehicle." 2 DECORATED FRENCH SOLDIERS KILLED IN RESCUE MISSION THAT SAVED AMERICAN, OTHER HOSTAGES IN AFRICA Zongo said the attack left the city "filled with panic," according to Reuters. "People are holed up at home. Shops and stores are closed," he told AFP. "It's practically a ghost town." One resident of the town told RFI it was the first time the village had been attacked. "There was no sign of any threat to this town," the resident told the radio network. PASTOR, 5 OTHERS KILLED IN BURKINA FASO CHURCH ATTACK While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, violent Islamic extremism has been increasingly destabilizing the country. A number of jihadist groups are known to operate the area. Another attack on a Christian church in the region last month after Sunday services left six dead, including a pastor. The Islamic extremists also have targeted foreigners, abducting and killing a Canadian geologist earlier this year. The attack came two days after the release of two hostages in Burkina Faso during a daring French special forces military operation that resulted in the deaths of two of their own soldiers. The hostages who were rescued, according to France, were a U.S. citizen, a South Korean national, and French nationals Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas. CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP While it is not yet clear who abducted the group and why, Burkina Faso – once considered a beacon of calm in the otherwise terror-teeming region – has been a growing hotbed for some time. Over the past six months, at least 5,000 people have been killed in the Sahel – the sub-Saharan region of northern Africa – amid an escalation of inter-ethnic violence ranging from bombings to massacres to suicide attacks. Fox News also reported last year that Al Qaeda too had gained a foothold in the region, spilling over the porous border from Mali with weapons pillaged from Libya after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2012. Fox News Greg Norman, Hollie McKay and the Associated Press contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Father Simeon Yampa, who was killed in the attack on a church in Burkina Faso on Sunday, May 12. (CNN) — Six people were killed Sunday during mass at a Catholic church in central Burkina Faso, according to state media. Gunmen on motorcycles stormed the church in Dablo on Sunday morning, killing six men, including the priest, identified as Father Simeon Yampa. The attackers then set fire to the church and other buildings in the area, the Burkina Information Agency reported. In February, CNN reported that the US was considering sending additional military advisers as well as intelligence and surveillance assets, such as drones, to Burkina Faso, in order to help combat a growing terrorist threat. The landlocked country in northwest Africa has been beset by extremist violence in recent months as Islamist terror groups expand their reach. The number of violent incidents in the country linked to the local affiliates of al Qaeda and ISIS rose from 24 in 2017 to 136 in 2018, according to a report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The Trump administration last year announced plans to cut the overall number of US troops in Africa by around 10%. One defense official told CNN that the reductions would eventually lower the number of US counterterrorism troops and their enablers who support operations by approximately 25%.<doc-sep>Gunmen killed at least six people, including a priest, at a Catholic church in Burkina Faso on Sunday, according to multiple news outlets. The attack in northern Burkina Faso is the second such incident against Christians within two weeks in the country, which is struggling with an influx of Islamic militants. Authorities said congregants were leaving the church around 9 a.m. local time in the town of Dablo, about 120 miles from the capital, Ouagadougou, when roughly 20 men circled them and opened fire. ADVERTISEMENT “These terrorist groups are now attacking religion with the macabre aim of dividing us,” according to a statement from the government. The mayor of Dablo told Reuters that the attackers then burned the church and looted a pharmacy and some others stores before leaving the area. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the nation has struggled with a rise in violence from jihadists, including abductions and killings, in the past several months. The State Department in April included Burkina Faso on a list of 35 countries where Americans are at risk of kidnapping and hostage-taking Days before the latest shooting, a raid led by French armed forces rescued four hostages - including an American, two French citizens and a South Korean – but two French soldiers died in the overnight raid. In another attack on Friday, five teachers were fatally shot. ADVERTISEMENT A gunmen also shot and killed a pastor and five congregants in April at a Protestant church in the same region of Burkina Faso. The West Africa nation, which shares a border with the volatile Mali, has historically had a tolerance for all manner of religious groups. But Burkina Faso’s government in December declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali due to the deadly Islamist attacks.<doc-sep>
An attack on a Catholic church in Burkina Faso, potentially linked to extreme Islamist violence in the country, has killed six people. Al Jazeera reports that a group of between 20 and 30 armed attackers killed a priest and five worshippers on Sunday, in the northeastern town of Dablo. The assailants also burned down the church itself as well as several local buildings, including a medical facility. According to a government spokesperson, they also destroyed businesses that served alcohol. This marks the third such attack in recent weeks. In April, religious centers in Dori and Silgadji, two other northern towns, were targeted. Four people were killed in Dori, according to a Catholic bishop there, who said armed men also destroyed parts of the town. That attack was followed by the one in Silgadji, where armed forces on motorcycles killed six people at a Protestant church. No group has taken responsibility for the attacks in Dori and Silgadji, and no one has taken responsibility for the latest attack in Dablo. Recent attacks in the country have been blamed on groups allied with both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and attacks on religious leaders — both Christian and Muslim — have increased in recent years, as have armed attacks in general; according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, while there were only 29 attacks by extremist groups in 2017, there were 137 in 2018. The attack in Dablo comes just two days after a French special forces mission rescued four hostages — two French, one South Korean, and one American — in northern Burkina Faso. Two French soldiers were killed in the raid, along with four kidnappers. Like the recent attacks, those kidnappings are believed to be the work of extremists aligned with either the Islamic State or al Qaeda; however, as with the violence, no group has taken responsibility. The effect of the attack on Dablo has been striking, according to its mayor, Ousmane Zongo. Beyond the grief of the affected families and the wider community, Zongo told the AFP the town is gripped with fear. “The city is filled with panic,” the mayor said. “People are holed up in their homes, nothing is going on. The shops and stores are closed. It’s practically a ghost town.” Burkina Faso has allied with other nations in the region, including Niger, Chad, and Mali, as it works to fight extremists operating in the country. France, once a colonial power in the region, is supporting these efforts with more than 4,000 troops. The US also has a counterterrorism presence in the area.