Sixteen members of The Jam’iyyatu Ansariddeen Attijaniyya of Nigeria claims 16 of its members have been shot dead by Burkina Faso soldiers on their way to Senegal. 

The national secretary of the Islamic groip, Sayyidi Mohammad AlQasim Yahaya, disclosed this at a news conference on Sunday in Abuja. 

He claimed that the Ansariddeen members were “randomly selected and cold-bloodedly shot to death in a most horrendous display of bestiality,” after being stopped the Burkinabe soldiers. 

The delegation were travelling from Nigeria to Senegal when they were stopped by the soldiers.  

He stated that 16 people in the delegation were killed and many others unaccounted for.

“Tijjaniyya worldwide urgently draws the attention of the Nigerian government, the United Nations, and Human Rights organizations to a matter of urgency and responsibility, wade into this matter by ensuring that the rights of the victims of this massacre are upheld and the bloodthirsty culprits are immediately brought to book,” he declared.

Mr Yahaya urged members of the Tijjaniyya movement to remain calm and law-abiding while the movement seeks justice for their slain members. 

The Burkina Faso embassy in Nigeria declined to comment on the reported killing.

“I cannot also confirm the story. It is not an embassy affair. The way you are hearing it is the same way we are hearing it in the news. We don’t even have a press department,” a Burkina Faso embassy official told Peoples Gazette.