Unidentified gunmen killed a pastor and five congregants at a Protestant church in northern Burkina Faso on Sunday, authorities said, the first attack on a church in a country that has seen an upsurge of Islamist violence this year.
The west African country, which boasts of a history of religious tolerance, has been beset by a rise in attacks as groups based in neighbouring Mali seek to extend their influence over the Sahel, the arid scrubland south of the Sahara.
The government declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali in December because of deadly Islamist attacks, including in Soum, the region where Sunday's attack took place.
Spokesman Remy Fulgance Dandjinou said on Monday that the latest attack was the first to target a church in the majority Muslim country where religious groups have historically lived together peacefully and frequently intermarried.
Government spokesman Dandjinou said the attack took place in the commune of Silgadji. He said he was unable to provide more detail on the attack or the perpetrators.
Around 55 to 60 per cent of Burkina Faso's population is Muslim, roughly 20-25 per cent are Christian and the rest follow indigenous regions, according to the US State Department.
