#BreakingNews RIP Brother Moses Simukonde Sens, Age 35, Catholic Missionary Killed in Burkina Faso, Africa

Agenzia Fides reports Brother Moses Simukonde Sens, age 35, Catholic Missionary was killed in Burkina Faso. "Soldiers fired several times at individuals whom they claimed posed a threat.

Unfortunately, one of the shots hit Brother Moses, killing him. The military police have apologized in an official letter to our congregation and the family of the missionary brother". 

"The tragedy occurred around 9 in the evening on March 29, when our brother was passing near the checkpoint set up by the military police", sources from the General House, of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers, affirm.

 "It was a tragic accident", a person in charge of the General House told Agenzia Fides, confirming the accidental murder of one of his community confreres in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Brother Moses Simukonde Sens, 35, originally from Zambia, was killed by a stray bullet on the evening of March 29 near a military checkpoint.

Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been going through a phase of serious political instability due to the violence of jihadist groups present in several areas, which has caused at least 10,000 deaths - civilian and military - and some two million displaced people. On March 30, a state of emergency was declared in eight regions of the country, which comprise 22 departments corresponding to nearly half of the national territory.
In addition, civil society organizations in Burkina Faso have expressed their concern over cases of "kidnapping" and "forced recruitment" of citizens as army auxiliaries in the fight against jihadism, and have denounced the "recurrent and systematic denial of freedom of opinion". (L.M.) (Edited from Agenzia Fides, 1/4/2023)