{"id":5619,"date":"2026-07-23T07:07:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/islamists-kill-21-christians-including-pastor\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T07:07:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T07:07:06","slug":"islamists-kill-21-christians-including-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/islamists-kill-21-christians-including-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamists Kill 21 Christians, Including Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Villagers from the town of Kokoana, in far western Burkina Faso near Mali, request prayer after Islamists killed 21 people in an attack on May 11, 2026, in which Christian leaders were deliberately targeted. &ldquo;The terrorists went to the home of Pastor Etienne Ke&iuml;ta and murdered him in front of his family,&rdquo; said a front-line worker. &ldquo;They then proceeded to two neighboring Christian households and killed the heads of those families as well.&rdquo; Christians in Burkina Faso have been repeatedly attacked by Muslim extremists in past years, and Islamists have killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands more. &ldquo;Please pray for the family of Pastor Ke&iuml;ta, the other grieving families and for the Christian community that has been deeply affected by this tragedy,&rdquo; said the front-line worker. He also asked for prayer for all who mourn, strength for believers, and protection for vulnerable communities in Burkina Faso.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/globalprayerguide\/burkina-faso\/\">Click here<\/a> to find out about Christian persecution in Burkina Faso and learn how to pray.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icommittopray.com\/request\/3013\/burkinabe-christians\/\" target=\"_blank\">Post a prayer for Burkinabe Christians on iCommitToPray.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Villagers from the town of Kokoana, in far western Burkina Faso near Mali, request prayer after Islamists killed 21 people in an attack on May 11, 2026, in which Christian leaders were deliberately targeted. &#8220;The terrorists went to the home of Pastor Etienne Ke\u00efta and murdered him in front of his family,&#8221; said a front-line worker. &#8220;They then proceeded to two neighboring Christian households and killed the heads of those families as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-5619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-i-commit-to-pray","tag-burkina-faso","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - 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