Displaying items by tag: Africa

The seventh and youngest child of Lezia Nakayiza, a widow, didn’t know that his family was keeping their Christianity a secret. The 8-year-old boy didn’t realise that telling his Muslim relatives how much he enjoyed a church choir would cause them to attack his family. ‘I could not share my faith with the brothers of my husband as well as the relatives who are radical Muslims’, said Nakayiza. ‘In June my son told one of the relatives of the wonderful choir at church, and that we have been attending the church since March. This was the beginning of our persecution.’ A Christian neighbour told her that the relatives were planning to punish her for leaving Islam, so when she saw many people approaching her house with weapons and shouts of ‘Away with this infidel’, she and her children escaped through the back door. The family is now living at an undisclosed location that is not sustainable.

Burkina Faso is quickly going from a peaceful farming nation to an extremist breeding ground. Attacks by IS and al-Qaeda militants have quadrupled since 2017. Over 70,000 people have fled their homes this year. Recently, gunmen in the north surrounded a group of people and executed four Christians who they found wearing crosses. Previously Christians, Muslims, religious people, and those with no faith lived together peacefully, but now violence is directed specifically at Christians, looking for religious symbols and attacking churches. The militants are really trying to bring division between the Muslims and Christians with a ‘divide and conquer’ mentality. This extremism can be traced back to the fall of Libya, when militants trickled into neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, bringing their weapons and violence with them. While the rest of the world was focused on surging extremist movements in east and central Africa, the seeds of militant Islam in West Africa were quietly being sown.

Bible translator Angus Abraham Fung, working with the Aghem Bible translation project in Cameroon, was among seven people said to have been killed in an overnight attack. His wife’s arm was cut off, according to a ministry source. The attack was carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Cameroon’s violence-ridden Anglophone region where separatists are fighting for independence. Fung, in his sixties, had worked for years on a New Testament translation in the Aghem language. Although it was completed in 2016 and over 3,000 copies have been published, distribution has not happened because of the war in the region. Pray for the swift recovery of his wife and for God’s comfort to all who mourn the death of the seven men. Pray also for the success of all literacy efforts to bring the word of God to people whose language has never been written down before, both in Cameroon and across the nations.

Cyril Ramaphosa won the May elections on a reformist ticket against ANC’s corrupt old guard. Now he is dealing with a corruption row over land reform in the countryside and xenophobia in the towns. When he took over he pledged to bring ‘ethics’ into politics. But for much of his short tenure, Ramaphosa has fought a campaign addressing financial scandals. His first move as president was spearheading controversial reforms which would advance land transfers to the black majority. But many black people don't yet know how to farm,so they need the white commercial farmers to train and help them. Recently, cities have experienced violent mobs looting shops and torching vehicles owned by foreign nationals, in a wave of xenophobic attacks. Angry residents are calling on the government to deport undocumented migrants. Nigeria sent an envoy to South Africa to express her displeasure over the treatment of her citizens, and Ethiopia's embassy advised its citizens to close their businesses. See also

Over 200 people including women and children were abducted and a church mission hospital and shops were looted when Islamist extremists raided the town of Boga, in this majority-Christian country. Bishop William Bahemuka said the Muslim ADF militia had attacked the town in the early hours. During the three-hour assault, there are conflicting reports about how much the army resisted the militants, as no casualties were reported. People are terrified. Families are traumatised and grieving over their abducted loved ones. The ADF has never been active in Boga, so people are confused and can’t understand the current situation. Bishop Bahemuka said, ‘I appeal to people of good will everywhere to lobby their home governments to put pressure on our government to stabilise the security situation. We also appeal for a massive outpouring of sustained prayer from Christians everywhere.’

Charity struggled with depression after her husband became a Muslim, abandoned her, and threatened to take their three children. ‘I just couldn’t let my children become Muslims, but I trusted the Lord to help us through this challenge’, she said. Her prayers were answered when a mission worker gave her persecution-response support. Charity’s children are now in school, and her financial burden is lightened. She asks us to pray that her husband will return to the Lord. Pray also for Sharifa, a Christian who was forced to flee home because she converted from Islam. 20-year-old Asuman needs your prayers. He was beaten and disowned by his family for becoming a Christian. In East Uganda a Christian primary school in the predominately Muslim Kabuna village was demolished because it educates Christian children who converted from Islam and whose parents remain Muslim. Christians across Uganda are experiencing death threats and chaos.

Sudan's ruling military council and civilian opposition alliance have signed a landmark power-sharing deal and Khartoum civilians have celebrated in the streets, dancing and waving their national flag. Omar al-Bashir, the former president of Sudan, will now face a long jail term if his high profile corruption trial finds him guilty of possessing foreign currency, corruption, receiving gifts illegally, and systematic human rights abuses.

Ending the illegal timber trade in Africa should be the first order of business at the G7 summit (see the article in Europe section). There is no wildlife sustainability when timber traffickers and their powerful backers get away with their crimes. Gambia, Madagascar and Senegal all have new governments, who must take steps against impunity for illegal timber trading. Before any new trade proposals can move forward, these countries must start holding perpetrators of past crimes to account. In the Gambia, US$325 million worth of illegal timber went through its ports from 2010 to 2016. Its former president took advantage of poverty and instability at the border to gain control of the illegal rosewood trade from neighbouring Senegal.

Far from seeing reform after Robert Mugabe was toppled, the country has fallen into deeper crisis as millions are ‘reduced to paupers’. Power cuts from dawn to long after dusk are causing families to cook on firewood in almost total darkness. Monthly earnings barely cover two weeks’ living expenses. With Mnangagwa things have gone from bad to worse with outlandish austerity measures causing 175% inflation. Multiple currencies replaced by another new Zimbabwe dollar, fuel subsidies cut, poor harvests, a cyclone and drought have compounded problems. The Zimbabwe Church is calling for the international community and the government to hear the cries of Zimbabwean families surviving on two meals a day and lacking life-saving medicine. UK aid agency CAFOD is asking for national dialogue, for all in authority to come together and address the current crisis as they do what they can to assist with food, clean water supplies, and seeds (70% of the population grow their own food).

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has called on Algerian authorities to guarantee freedom of worship to churches and religious institutions, and to allow all closed churches to re-open. A press release on 12 August states, ‘We deeply regret that in May and in August 2019 two churches were forcibly closed in the city of Boudjima. This brings the number of forcibly closed churches to six, including one house church. Five of them belong to the Protestant Church of Algeria, a WEA member. Many more churches are threatened with closure, amid denial of formal registration and recognition by authorities. We also call on the Algerian authorities to suspend and revise the February 2006 ordinance setting out the conditions and rules for the exercise of non-Muslim religions. This ordinance is cited in each of the decisions to close churches.’