Seven Christians Were Killed in Burkina Faso Attack
New information reveals that even more Christians were murdered in last week's al Qaeda attack in Burkina Faso.
WorldWatch Monitor reports a total of seven of the 29 people killed were in the West African nation because of their Christian faith.
Four Canadians from the same family were visiting Burkina Faso on behalf of their local church-affiliated group, Le Centre Amitié de Solidarité Internationale de la Région des Appalaches.
Yves Carrier, his wife Gladys Chamberland, and their two children, Charles-Élie, 19, and Maude, 37, were enjoying a meal together before the two children flew back to Canada when the attack took place.
Chamberland's sister, Marie-Claude Blais, wrote on Facebook: "I still can't understand how people who had such a love of life, who were always ready to help, always smiling and loved by so many people, can be taken away in such a horrendous way. They did good only to be killed by evil."
U.S. missionary Michael Riddering, 45, from Hollywood, Florida, was also killed in Friday's attack.
Riddering's mother-in-law, Carol Boyle, described him as a man who was "extremely well-loved and respected... He had his guiding light, and he followed it."
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said the jihadist group al-Murabitoun was behind the attacks on two hotels and the café, which were frequented by U.N. staff and aid workers.
In a statement released online, the group said that the attack was "a new message from the heroic champions of Islam, with their blood and their bodies, to the slaves of the cross, the occupiers of our homes, the looters of our wealth, and who would undermine our security."
On the same day as the attack, an Australian doctor and his wife were kidnapped in Ouagadougou.
Ken and Jocelyn Elliot, a Christian couple in their eighties, have been setting up medical facilities in Burkina Faso since the 1970s. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
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