Antonio César Fernández Fernández (7 July 1946 – 15 February 2019), was a Spanish Salesian missionary in

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

and

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

Biography and mission

He was born in the village of

Pozoblanco Pozoblanco () is a town in the Córdoba Province, Spain, province of Córdoba, southern Spain, in the north-central part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located near the headwaters of the Guadamatil ...

, in the province of Córdoba, southern

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. When he was 16 years he felt the Salesian vocation and began the novitiate worried about poverty and the lack of priests. He was a professor at Santo Domingo Savio school in Úbeda between 1972 and 1976. Between 1988 and 1998 he was novice master. He was a missionary in several countries of Africa since 1981. In 1982 he founded the Salesian presence in Togo, specifically in the city of Lomé, where he began school, parish, workshop and leisure activities with young people. He continued his mission as a missionary in the Ivory Coast, in a street children's play that is concretized in a parish and a youth center. He then went to Burkina Faso, initially in the city of

Bobo-Dioulasso Bobo-Dioulasso is a city in Burkina Faso with a population of 904,920 (); it is the second-largest city in the country, after Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. The name means "home of the Bobo-Dioula". The local Bobo-speaking population (re ...

, where there is a professional center and a youth center. At the time of his death he was in

Ouagadougou Ouagadougou ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural, and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's n ...

, where the Salesians have a women's promotion center and do activities with the children in the neighborhood.

Murder

He died after receiving three shots on 15 February 2019 in the afternoon on the crossfire of a

jihadist Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

attack with twenty motorcycles against Noah's customs office in the province of Boulgou, 40 kilometers from the southern border of Burkina Faso. After holding a meeting in Lomé with Salesians from West African Francophone, he was returning to his community in Ouagadougou with other religious who were able to survive. In addition to César, in the attack four or 6 local officials died, according to the source. The

Prime Minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government ( es, link=no, Presidente del Gobierno), is the head of government of Spain. The office was established in its current form by the Constitution of 1978 and it was first regula ...

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...

, expressed his condolences to his relatives for his death. His hometown, Pozoblanco, decreed two days of mourning. Few days before he died he recorded a video that was widely disseminated after his death, where he explained his vocation.El vídeo en el que el misionero asesinado explica su vocación: "He recibido muchos beneficios del Señor"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Antonio Cesar 1946 births 2019 deaths Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Burkina Faso Roman Catholic missionaries in Ivory Coast Salesians of Don Bosco Spanish Roman Catholics Spanish Roman Catholic priests Spanish people murdered abroad People murdered in Burkina Faso People from the Province of Córdoba (Spain)