24 gunned down in a church attack in Burkina Faso

Gunmen have killed 24 people and wounded 18 in an assault on a village church in northern Burkina Faso, the regional governor said Monday, with a provisional toll indicating the local pastor was targeted.

A group of "armed terrorists" burst into the village of Pansi, in Yagha, a volatile province near the Niger border, "and attacked the peaceful local population after having identified them and separated them from non-residents," Colonel Salfo Kabore said in a statement sent to AFP.