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Michael Riddering
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Burkina Faso's [West Africa] first attack by Islamist extremists took the lives of seven Westerners visiting to do short- and long-term missions work.
Terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda opened fire on two hotels and a nearby restaurant in Ouagadougou on Friday, killing 29 civilians from 7 countries, Reuters reports. The gunmen took more than 100 hostages during the West African nation’s first encounter with such extremism, The Washington Post reported.
Six of the casualties were Canadians visiting the country on a three-week missions trip over their Christmas break. Another was an American missionary who, with his wife, had run an orphanage and women’s crisis center in Burkina Faso since 2011.
The Canadian casualties included Yves Carrier, Gladys Chamberland, and their two children, Charles-Élie, 19, and Maude, 37. The family, along with two of their friends, Suzanne Bernier and Louis Chabot, were working at orphanages and schools in remote villages on behalf of a church-affiliated group from their home province of Quebec, reported The Star.
Last Friday, Charles-Élie and Maude were scheduled to fly home, and the group went out for a last meal in the capital city before the two were due at the airport.
Several terrorists entered the Cappuccino Cafe, a restaurant popular among foreigners since it served European food, and opened fire, Reuters reported.
Maude Carrier
“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,” Marie-Claude Blais, Chamberland’s sister, wrote on Facebook. “They did good only to be killed by evil.”
Story continues: http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2016/january/
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