Christian Persecution on the Rise Across Africa
The tragedy in Haiti has captured the bulk of the media's attention. But there is a growing trend of Christian persecution in Africa that has been receiving coverage. This week, clashes between Muslims and Christians in the central Nigerian city of Jos have killed more than 400 people and injured 4,000 more, according to Bloomberg.com.
Most of the fighting in three days of violence occurred in the city’s poor neighborhoods where security forces arrived late, Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, told Bloomber.com by phone from Jos. Hospitals are overwhelmed and have run out of supplies to treat the injured, Sani said.
According to Intercessors Network, gunshots and smoke continued to alarm residents of Jos, with the Christian community fearing further violence from Muslim youths who on Sunday (Jan. 17) attacked a Catholic church and burned down several other church buildings.
Police said continuing violence was initially triggered by Sunday’s unprovoked attack by Muslim youths on worshippers at the St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Nasarawa Gwong, in the Jos North Local Government Area. Also burned were buildings of the Christ Apostolic Church, Assemblies of God Church, three branches of the Church of Christ in Nigeria and two buildings of the Evangelical Church of West Africa, Christian leaders said.
“We have been witnessing sporadic shootings in the last two days,” said the Rev. Chuwang Avou, secretary of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria. “We see some residents shooting sporadically into the air. We have also seen individuals with machine guns on parade in the state.”
Avou said many of those who are shooting are civilians, not policemen, and that they have been mounting road blocks and causing chaos in the area. At least 35 people have been arrested.
“What we have witnessed only goes to show that the problem in the state is far from over,” he said. “Many families have been displaced. There are a number who are receiving treatment in the hospital. The dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed in the state has not solved any problem, as there is still tension in the land.”
The secretary of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Pastor Wale Adefarasin, said attacks on Christians are a manifestation of terrorism in the country. “What we should realize is that the government is not helping situations,” he said. “It is an illusion that Nigeria is safe. The Muslim fundamentalists want to take over Jos by all means,” Pastor Adefarasin said. “They claim that Jos is a Muslim state, which is not true.”
Assist News Service is also reporting violence in North Africa. The Tafat Protestant Church building in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria, was set on fire on January 9, around 11:00 pm, according to the website for satellite broadcaster Channel North Africa (www.cna-sat.org ). According to the church's pastor, Mustapha Krireche, "around twenty bearded men broke into the church, destroyed the chairs and doors and then set the building on fire."
According to Pastor Mustapha, earlier that same day, the day they normally gather together to worship, church members were forcibly prevented from entering the church. Mustapha said the same men who stopped them worshipping also started destroying facilities. The police came and wrote down details of the incident, but the attackers returned during the night to burn down the building.
Across the continent in Ethiopia, Open Doors reports that a successful Christian business man named Markos was murdered on December 20th in a brutal machete attack in the Muslim-majority state of Oromia, Ethiopia. Believers claim that he was killed for giving financial assistance to his church after it was attacked by a mob of Muslim extremists in September 2009. While an investigation into Markos' murder is currently underway, district administrators insist that Markos was killed to create political instability and not for his faith. However, the persecution of believers has increased here and in other areas of the country. Markos leaves behind his wife, Sintayehu, and their seven children aged 10 to 25.
Please pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who endure suffering and persecution, not only in Africa, but around the world.
More from ChurchWatch
More from CBN News
More from Spiritual Life
More from CBN's Christian World News
More from Open Doors
More from Assist News Service
Sign Up to Receive theIntercessors Network E-Newsletter
Read the Intercessors Network Blog
More from Craig von Buseck on CBN.com