Burkina Faso

On Saturday, March 8, eight young Christians were baptized. The ceremony took place in a village in the southwestern part of the country where Muslim terrorists from neighboring Mali sometimes attack and kill followers of Christ. “These baptisms are different than most I have attended as they are quite solemn,” said a front-line worker. “Once these individuals are baptized, they are targeted and are likely to be beaten or even killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.”

In recent years, militant Fulani Muslims have attacked and killed numbers of Christians, but some have also become followers of Christ. Fulani converts are often rejected by their families and struggle to find supportive communities. A ministry in Burkina Faso is helping Fulani Christian converts by providing a safe place where they can grow in their walk with the Lord and meet other Fulani followers of Christ. In a four-month period, the center hosted Saturday vacation Bible schools which 675 children attended.

Alimata’s husband, Yacouba, was the assistant pastor at a church in Kounla. On August 25, 2024, Islamic terrorists came to their house looking for Christian men. They forced Yacouba and another man, bound and blindfolded, into the church at gunpoint. As militants hunted more Christians, Alimata and other women fled with their children. As they ran, they heard gunshots. “I knew that they had killed my husband,” Alimata said. While hiding, a woman named Fadima also heard the gunshots that killed her husband and 27 more men inside the church. “Please pray for me as I am in trauma,” she said.

On August 25, 2024, Islamic extremists killed 28 Christians and injured several others after opening fire on a Sunday night church service. Some who fled the attack are still missing. Later in the same week, extremists attacked an area outside the town of Kaya and killed at least 400 people. Then, during the last week of September, Islamists attacked a church located near the border of Burkina Faso and Niger.

The Fulani are a nomadic Muslim tribe who live in a vast region where the Sahara Desert meets the African savanna, called the Sahel. The total number of Fulani is unknown but believed to be between 20 and 40 million people. Militant Fulani Muslims have been involved in vicious attacks on Christians in many nations, including Nigeria and Burkina Faso. But some Fulani are turning to Christ, like Sadou in Burkina Faso. Sadou was raised from childhood to make and sell Islamic charms. One day he read a Christian brochure in his native Fulani language and asked a Christian for a Bible.

On June 12, 2023, Ibrahim Saidou was traveling to buy farm supplies when he decided to visit the church where he served as an elder. Ibrahim lived in an area of Burkina Faso where Islamic terrorist groups associated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) actively work to establish purely Muslim territory ruled by Islamic law. These groups regularly attack churches and Christian leaders. On his way to the church, Ibrahim was attacked and murdered by a group of Islamic militants.

Amadou Kabore was born into the Muslim Fulani tribe in Burkina Faso. In 2021, he watched the JESUS film and placed his trust in Christ. His decision to follow Christ enraged his father and brothers, and they beat Amadou severely. Amadou fled to the nearby nation of Togo for safety. Front-line workers helped him secure housing and enroll in a vocational training program in his new country.

Femke was married to a village witch doctor for 33 years and was terrorized by demons. The spirits would drive her mad and tell her information her husband would use in his fortune-telling. When he died suddenly, she sought spiritual freedom. A pastor prayed for her, and she was healed of all demonic oppression.

Hamidou felt the call of God to spread the gospel. So he left the safety of his home in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, to take the gospel to the northern part of his nation. Though radical Islamists are active in that region, he moved there with his family and planted a church.

In February 2023, jihadists burned and destroyed Pastor Laurent’s church in eastern Burkina Faso. Then, in March 2023, jihadists abducted Pastor Laurent when he traveled to attend a regional pastors’ meeting. As the kidnappers forced him into the bush, he sent one text to his family, who haven’t heard from him since.