He told of how the group of attackers crossed the border from Niger with motorcycles. Of how they separated the men from the women, told the men to lie down on the ground, covered their heads with a cloth, then killed them one by one.  Several of those murdered were children.

Bishop Justin Kientega of Ouahigouya decried the violence and said that Western governments have a responsibility to stop the flow of weapons to militants in the region.

Speaking to the charity Aid to the Church in Need, he voiced his belief that the attack is part of an attempt by radical Islamists to provoke a religious conflict in a country where Christians and Muslims have always lived peaceably side by side, and he argued that the Western world has been ignoring the plight of Christians in West Africa.

“There is an ongoing persecution of Christians. For months, we bishops have been denouncing what is happening in Burkina Faso,” Bishop Kientega said,  ”but nobody is listening to us.”  ”Evidently,” he concluded, “the West is more concerned with protecting its own interests.”