By CISA
BANFORA, JANUARY 22, 2021 (CISA)-Fr Rodrigue Sanon, the Parish priest of Notre Dame de la Paix in Soubaganyedougou, who had been reported missing on January 19 has been found dead.
“It is with deep pain that I bring news on the death of Fr Rodrigue Sanon whose lifeless body was found today, January 21, 2021 in the classified forest of Toumousseni about twenty kilometres away from Banfora,” Bishop Lucas Kalfa Sanou of the Banfora Diocese said in a January 21 statement.
Fr Sanon was discovered missing after he failed to turn up for a scheduled meeting in Banfora having left Soubaganyedougou. The priest’s vehicle was found abandoned on the road.
Bishop Sanou in an earlier statement appealed to anyone with information about the missing priest to notify the police of Soubaganyedougou, Banfora, or the bishop, or a priest of the diocese.
For about five years now, the north and eastern parts of Burkina Faso, part of the Sahel region, have witnessed a series of jihadist attacks targeting churches and Religious.
Concerns have been raised over the situation in the region with the Episcopal conference of Burkina Faso terming the situation as “more worrying than ever”.
In August the Grand Imam of Djibo and president of the Muslim community of northern city, Souaibou Cissé, was found dead three days after his kidnapping by a group of armed individuals who had intercepted the bus in which he was traveling.
Fr Joël Yougbaré, parish priest of Djibo was kidnapped in March 2019 and is yet to be found. On Sunday May 12, 2020 Fr Siméo Yampa and five faithful from the diocese of Kaya were killed by terrorists in the Church of Dablo.
