Since 2019, in particular, priests, religious and faithful have been increasingly targeted by terrorists, the foundation says, adding that its Christmas campaign this year will focus on Christians in the West Africa country that the foundation says “are subjected to bloody violence on a daily basis.”
ACN also aims to celebrate “the heroic work of the Catholic Church” in Burkina Faso which, according to the charity foundation, works tirelessly for traumatized and internally displaced people in the country.
“We cannot be indifferent to the immeasurable suffering of these Christians. With this year’s Christmas campaign, we want to help the local Church to provide emergency aid and trauma management programmes for the internally displaced, as well as to carry out its pastoral and educational mission,” says Marco Mencaglia, Director of Projects for ACN International.
He adds, “The terrorists are trying to cause division among a population which, until now, has been an example of harmony. The Catholic Church is doing what it can to maintain good relations between Muslims and Christians.”
ACN expresses concern that with the exception of the central region, based around Burkina Faso’s capital Uagadugu, the whole country, with its approximately 20 million inhabitants, is now affected by the violence.
“The ongoing terrorism has led to one of the fastest growing displacement crises in the world, with over two million people forced from their homes,” the charity foundation reports, adding that in Burkina Faso today, anybody who does not follow the radical Islamist ideology is a potential victim.
ACN’s Christmas campaign for 2024 is aimed at encouraging people all over the world to pray for the persecuted Christians in Burkina Faso and to support them through donations, which will allow the foundation to fund approximately 50 projects in the seven dioceses affected by terrorism and violence, on the borders with Niger and Mali.
For the internally displaced, forced to flee their towns and villages due to the unfolding terror, this aid is more than necessary, the foundation says.
At the moment, trauma care projects are especially crucially important for the Church in Burkina Faso, Marco says, and explains, “We have children who witnessed their parents having their throats cut. Women who saw their husbands murdered in cold blood and others who were raped by terrorists. Many had to leave everything they owned in a matter of hours: their loved ones, their homes, even their country.”
The ACN Director of Projects adds, “ACN will be providing training in psycho-spiritual support and trauma healing to hundreds of priests, religious and catechists, so that they can offer quality help to the thousands of people who have suffered serious trauma,” the Director of Projects says.
