Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced out of their homes in Burkina Faso as Christian communities are targeted in a spiral of Islamist killings.
The surge of attacks has forced some families to flee and leave everything behind, and the violence is threatening to spread to other countries, said Jennifer Overton, West Africa regional director for Catholic Relief Services.
“Burkina Faso is home to some of the world’s poorest communities — even without this violence, people face chronic food shortages, high unemployment, climate change and environmental degradation,” Overton told Catholic News Service Feb. 28.