Terrorists attack a mosque and kill nine Muslim Ahmadis in cold blood in Burkina Faso

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has denounced in an official statement the terrorist attack on a mosque that killed nine Ahmadis in Burkina Faso and called for greater protection. 

The official statement of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is reproduced below:

On Wednesday 11 January 2023, a terrorist group stormed an Ahmadiyya Muslim Community mosque in Burkina Faso and murdered nine worshippers in an unprovoked and cold-blooded attack.

The local Muslim Ahmadis were peacefully gathered in their mosque in Mahdi Abad, a village built by the Community in 2008 near the northern town of Dori, for evening prayers when the terrorists stormed the mosque and began harassing worshippers.

They separated nine elderly men - including the imam of the mosque - from the others, forced them out of the mosque and then brutally executed them.

After this savage attack, the terrorists threatened all the other worshippers, including children, that they would also be killed if they returned inside the mosque.

The spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community commented: "Our Community around the world is a real family. We are devastated by this brutal murder of our brothers and mourn with their loved ones. We pray that God will wrap the martyrs in His mercy".

"We also pray for the security of Burkina Faso and for the government to fulfil its duty to protect all Burkinabe people - including the Muslim Ahmadis - and for the perpetrators of this evil crime to be brought to justice," he said. 

Ahmadi Muslims are persecuted because of their faith by both state and non-state actors in many Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan. In 2010, dozens of Ahmadi Muslims were killed by terrorists who simultaneously attacked two mosques in the city of Lahore.

On 13 July 2021, UN human rights experts expressed deep concern about the lack of attention to the serious human rights violations perpetrated against Ahmadis around the world, and called on countries to redouble their efforts to end the ongoing persecution of Ahmadis.

Once again, we urge the International Community to urge governments where Muslim Ahmadis are persecuted to bring their laws and practices into conformity with international standards, as mandated by Articles 20, 2 and 18 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 25 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.