A Spanish priest and four customs officers were killed in separate attacks by suspected Muslim extremists in Burkina Faso, which is struggling with a radical Muslim insurgency, local sources said.
“The Spanish Salesian Antonio Cesar Fernandez was assassinated during a jihadist attack between Togo and Burkina Faso,” about 3pm local time on Friday, the Salesians of Don Bosco order said in a statement posted on Friday on Twitter.
Fernandez, 72, and two others were returning from a meeting in the Togolese capital, Lome, when they “were attacked by gunmen after crossing the border between Togo and Burkina Faso,” Jose Elegbede, the head of the order, said in a statement.
In a separate attack, a group of about 20 gunmen targeted customs officers who set up a mobile post in Nohao, near the border with Togo, on Friday evening, killing four of them, a security source said.
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