Displaying items by tag: Africa

SAT-7 Christian broadcasters are sharing prayers across the Middle East for Morocco, after a major earthquake killed over 2,900 people, with many thousands more injured, homeless, and grieving. They seek to bring the Lord’s comfort through TV programmes and digital media across the High Atlas mountain region. Rescue efforts are complicated. Damaged homes and infrastructure plus aftershocks have left survivors outdoors. Ask God to reassure the fearful who don’t know when or where they can sleep safely. Pray for God’s peace to cover those who are trying to make contact with missing relatives and friends across the country. Since 11 September, SAT-7 has used its different channels and platforms to call for and share prayers for the Moroccan people from Christians in neighbouring Algeria and Turkey. SAT-7’s content advisor said, ‘Asking for prayers in support of the Moroccan people is an important early response. People need comfort, care and connection with others during times of disaster. People need to know that others care and feel for them.’

After the earthquake rattled through Morocco, Help The Persecuted’s field ministry team mobilised immediately into the mountains to meet the overwhelming need. What they found shocked them. Most homes have been flattened to rubble. Roads are completely destroyed, cutting the most remote areas off from any sort of aid. Those fortunate enough to have survived are completely traumatised and in desperate need of food, water, intensive medical care, and shelter. The team distributed funds and basic relief supplies to those who had lost everything, praying with each recipient. They aided in rescuing some from the rubble. They are making lists of key supplies, hoping to provide survivors in the most remote areas with all they need to survive the coming days and weeks. The devastation goes much deeper than tangible need. These people watched their family members die before their eyes and could do absolutely nothing. Missionaries listened to their sufferings and prayed with them, but they will need so much more care.

Tens of thousands of people are dead in Libya after a storm caused two dams to burst and four bridges to collapse, releasing a tsunami of water as people slept. Much of Derna City is under water and up to 20,000 people may have died, based on the number of districts completely destroyed. About 10,000 are missing from streets swept away in the torrents. Bodies are being recovered from the sea, in the valleys, and from under buildings. Rescue teams have arrived from Egypt, Tunisia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the UK. Pray for good communication between volunteers, all speaking different languages, and that the two rival Libyan governments will successfully coordinate relief efforts. The devastation is becoming more tragic every minute. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) does not currently work in the flooded areas, but a team of emergency medical workers has arrived in Derna, to assess needs and donate emergency medical kits and body bags to Libya’s Red Crescent. See

A total of 104 government and private higher education institutions in Sudan, as well as research centres and the National Fund for Student Welfare have been damaged or destroyed since April, when the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces became embroiled in a war. All institutions in Khartoum state, where the capital is also located, as well as several in other states, have been affected. The scale of destruction in Sudan’s higher education sector was posted on Facebook on 27 August by the country’s ministry of higher education and scientific research. The ministry’s own offices were damaged in a fire that affected several floors. After several years of disruption because of political volatility and the pandemic, UNICEF has launched the Learning Passport, an online and offline e-learning platform, almost free of charge, to enable schoolchildren to take part in flexible learning in different parts of Sudan.

Burkina Faso is shaken by political conflict and military coups. ‘Attacks against Christians are common. Many don’t know if they will survive another day. They see loved ones beheaded, raped or reduced to sexual slavery’, said Father Rouamba. He said that Christians are affected on a daily basis by the appalling actions of Al-Qaeda and IS. Terrorists began targeting Christians in Kompienga Province, east Burkina Faso, around Pentecost this year. ‘If people refuse to convert to Islam, they are forced to leave, but as the roads are blocked, they are left to wander around in the forest with no possessions, and many die due to lack of food. These are real tragedies that are not reported in the media.’ Father Rouamba wants to set up support units, offering spiritual and psychological support. Christians who had, to some extent, abandoned religious practice before the crisis are returning to their faith at a time when terrorists are trying to extinguish Christianity.

A climate summit in Nairobi has seen dozens of world leaders discuss climate solutions for Africa’s 1.3 billion people affected by climate change. Africa is the fastest-growing continent, and the most vulnerable to climate change. 85% of the worst-hit countries in the climate crisis are African. The Daily Nation newspaper proclaimed this gathering ‘Africa's moment.’ Kenya’s president Ruto came to power with climate change relief and accountability cornerstones of his foreign policy. Addressing the conference, he claimed, ‘Climate change is crimping Africa’s economic growth annually by 5 to 15%, despite Africa accounting for less than 4% of global emissions.’ The intention was for delegates to come to see resource-rich African states as crucial stakeholders in the green economy. Africa’s abundance of natural resources only receives 3% of global energy investments. The summit’s outcome sees nations promising financial solutions to climate-induced food insecurity, finding technical resolutions to food scarcity and storage, and making African markets attractive to investors.

On 31 August a building being used as ‘informal’ housing for some 200 homeless people caught fire with at least 73 people dying. They lived in a maze of shacks and makeshift structures inside the five-storey building. Seven victims were children, 52 are injured, and the death toll is expected to rise. Johannesburg has widespread poverty and joblessness, and 15,000 homeless people. The head of Human Settlements said some of the victims may have been renting from criminal gangs illegally collecting fees. Johannesburg’s mayor said that the city administration is aware that many such ‘hijacked’ buildings exist and are rented out by cartels preying on the vulnerable. Because most of them are in the hands of cartels and the city suffers from chronic power shortages, residents resort to candles for light and wood fires for heat. This fire demonstrates a chronic criminalised housing problem.

Following the killing of 21 Christians and critical injuries to ten more in the Plateau by Fulani militants, believers are increasingly at risk and calling for action from leaders. The violence erupted when Fulani herdsmen set buildings alight in Heipang, an area where many displaced Christians from surrounding villages have been staying. Masara Kim, a Jos journalist, told a Catholic charity that after setting the houses ablaze, they aimed their assault rifles at those trying to flee from the fires. He said, ‘About half of the victims were burnt beyond recognition. At least five of them were infants. It was a heartbreaking scene to witness. They were given a mass burial in a rain-soaked mass grave. These are poor villagers who do not even have money for food, much less for coffins. There were witnesses, but authorities failed to identify the perpetrators.’

An airstrike in Ethiopia’s Amhara region has killed 26 people, as detailed widespread killings of civilians broke out this month. Fano militiamen had flooded towns and cities in Amhara, briefly taking over several of them; they attacked police stations and garrisons, freed prisoners and intermittently took control of Lalibela airport. Early in August federal forces managed to push them out. Ethnic tensions and land conflicts lie behind Amhara’s clashes. This fighting is Ethiopia’s biggest security crisis since the civil war in neighbouring Tigray ended in November 2022, but there is now a state of emergency. Many had hoped Ethiopia was inching back towards stability and away from a conflict that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. Prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s reputation as a Nobel-prizewinning peacemaker is being shredded. He had hoped to reach deals with the IMF and the World Bank to rescue Ethiopia’s war-wrecked economy.

The Allied Democratic Force (ADF), which operates primarily out of the DRC, is a violent extremist group that is gaining power in Central Africa. The known IS affiliate is notorious for targeting Christians in its violent campaigns to establish an Islamic caliphate in the region. A widening recruitment network and an increase in funding overseas contributed to ADF’s bloodiest year yet. While IS lost much of its power and control in Syria and Iraq, its affiliate groups in Afghanistan, the Sahel region, and Central Africa grew stronger. The ADF was listed as one of the worst terrorist groups in 2022. Pray for an end to ADF-led violence in this region. Pray for God to protect Christians throughout the DRC. Pray also for the group’s funding and recruitment network to be cut off.