Brother Salvador, Salesian, a Basque who’s been in Burkina for more than half a century educating children, youth and adults, sends us this sincere and heartfelt e-mail, in which he explains the stressful and uncertain situation that’s again threatening Burkina.

Dear friends and benefactors, 

We’re finishing up the second trimester of the school year. Thank God, I’m in good health and in good spirits, wrapped in a blanket of heat – 40 degrees by day and 25 by night. 

Brother Salvador

Testing is over vacation starts March 20 until April 1. This year we’ll celebrate Holy Week and Easter in class.  

One might say everything is going well. But it isn’t really. People are anxious. We are worried.  We’ve had 3 months of Jihadist attacks on police stations and military posts in the north of the country. The north borders Mali, and there is war in Mali. France maintains some thousand soldiers there. The north is dunes and rock. From there to Libya is desert terrain. There have been casualties. I couldn’t say how many. First they killed military personnel. And then all of a sudden they’ve killed a civilian. 

This happened on March 3. A teacher, in a schoolyard, during recess. A fanatic came up to him and shot him, in front of the students.  Why? The imam on the other side of the border said that modern schools are an affront to Islam. And he was the Principal. Sadly, they buried him without any kind of ceremony and in absence of the authorities. This led to indignation, not only among the local people, but also among unions who protested all over the country. Why are military victims buried with pomp and circumstance, but civilians don’t merit any notice? Aren’t the teachers in the towns of the north at the service of the country and separated from their families? 

The north of Burkina where the attacks are taking place

The killing frightened government employees in border towns, who abandoned the towns and retreated to the cities where they would be safer. 

For centuries, African Islam was peaceful. Today, we find Islamists who, under the pretext of purity of faith, want to return Islam to the 7^th or 8^th century, when it was militaristic and dominant. And even then there was internal rivalry in Islam between Shiites and Sunnis, with bloody battles to impose power – whether in Baghdad (Shiite) or Damascus (Sunni). We are seeing the same old hatreds resurging; The slaughtered teacher was Muslim.  

We pray every day in the churches for peace. Truly. We do it every day after Mass. The bishops have asked us to.  

For me, the situation is one more reason to keep teaching this country’s boys and girls – Christians and Muslims together. So that charity, respect and solidarity endure and it is evident that what the fundamentalist imams preach does not correspond to reality. 

This time I ask you more than ever to pray for us that we be faithful to God’s plan. Faithfully yours, as always, Brother Salvador