Tag: East Africa

Did Mozambique beheadings signal emergence of jihad in southern Africa?

June 19, 2018 Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamâ, Cabo Delgado, East Africa, Mocimboa da Praia, Mozambique, Sahel

Mozambique experienced its first confirmed Islamist attack on October 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Recent attacks attributed to Islamist militants in Mozambique have raised alarms over the emergence of a jihadist movement in the southern half of Africa – a section of the continent previously relatively untroubled by violent Islamist extremism. Little, if anything, was known about the group behind the attacks, in October . . . Read More

Eritrea: Rights groups call for renewal of UN Special Rapporteur’s mandate

May 25, 2018 Eritrea East Africa, Eritrea, Human rights, Pentecostals, Refugees, Religious freedom

A boy in Nguenyyiel refugee camp in Gambela region of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in June. (Photo: Getty Images)

Rights groups have called for the mandate of the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur for Eritrea to be renewed in June. The human rights situation in the East African country has been monitored by the UN Human Rights Council since 2012, when it appointed Ms Sheila B. Keetharuth as the . . . Read More

‘State-sponsored repression’ behind Eritrea’s refugee epidemic

April 24, 2018 Eritrea Abune Antonios, African Union, East Africa, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Human rights, Pentecostals, Refugees, Religious freedom, USA

Eritrea remains “one of the worst examples of state-sponsored repression of freedom of religion or belief in the world”, says USCIRF Commissioner. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

“State-sponsored repression” is the reason Eritrea is one of the world’s main sources of refugees, a US human rights commission has heard. The East African country is not at war, nor does it suffer from terrorism, but some estimate that as many as 10 per cent of Eritreans have fled . . . Read More

UN ‘failing’ Eritrea’s detained Christians

March 16, 2018 Eritrea Abune Antonios, Asmara, East Africa, Eritrea, Human rights, Pentecostals, Religious freedom

Eritrea’s human rights record was again in the spotlight at the UN Human Rights Council earlier this week. Kate Gilmore, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in her opening remarks that over 100 people were arrested in Eritrea in 2017 for practising religions not officially recognised by the state. . . . Read More

Kenya: engaged couple killed, together with fellow primary school teacher, by suspected Al-Shabaab attackers

February 21, 2018 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Boni, Catholics, East Africa, Education, Garissa, Islamic extremism, Kenya, Lamu, Mandera, Nairobi, Somalia, Wajir

After the coldblooded murder of three Christian teachers – including a couple soon to be married – in north-eastern Kenya by suspected Al-Shabaab gunmen, fear is growing that the Islamist militant group is targeting education, and its proponents, in the predominantly Muslim region. Seth Oluoch Odada and Kevin Shari were . . . Read More

Ceasefire holds but food shortage threatens Sudan’s Nuba people

November 14, 2017 Sudan East Africa, Education, Nuba Mountains, Sanctions, South Kordofan, SPLM-N, Sudan

A young girl grinds some grain in the shade of her home in the Nuba Mountains. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The war planes may have gone and the bombings stopped, thanks to a ceasefire, but the people of Sudan’s Nuba Mountains are now battling another enemy: hunger. Six years of civil war between Sudan’s government troops and the SPLM-N rebels, fighting for self-determination, has destroyed communities and infrastructure in the . . . Read More

Eritrean Christian mother’s ‘isolation’ after church-leader husband imprisoned

September 15, 2017 Eritrea Children, East Africa, Eritrea, Pentecostals, Women

World Watch Monitor reported a month ago how a mother of three, Fikadu Debesay, died in a desert camp where she had been imprisoned together with her husband. Their crime? Belonging to a non-sanctioned church in Eritrea. Like Debesay, Ruth is in her late 30s, has three children, and although not . . . Read More

Coastal and north-east Kenyans have more to fear than most, as Al-Shabaab threatens elections

August 7, 2017 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Boni, East Africa, Garissa, Kenya, Lamu, Mandera, Mombasa, Mpeketoni, Pandaguo, Somalia, Tana River, Uhuru Kenyatta, Westgate

On June 15, 2014 twin attacks by suspected al-Shabaab militants on Mpeketoni and a nearby village of Poroko left 52 people dead. The attackers singled out all who could not recite Muslim prayers and killed them in plain site before destroying their homes.

Attacks by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in the Kenyan coastal region of Lamu are raising concerns that the Islamist group is attempting to disrupt the election tomorrow (8 August), as international observers warn of chaos if the result is perceived as rigged. The election, between current President Uhuru Kenyatta and his . . . Read More

Somaliland closes only Catholic church due to public pressure – it re-opened a week ago after 30 years

August 4, 2017 Somalia Africa, Catholics, Converts, East Africa, Islamic extremism, Migrants, Mogadishu, Somalia, Somaliland

The only Catholic church in Somaliland, East Africa, officially re-opened after three decades on 29 July, has been closed again within a week, due to public pressure. “The issue has created a lot of division … which is not in our national interest… The government has decided to respect the . . . Read More

‘Tremendous pressure’ on Christians in Somalia

June 28, 2017 Somalia Al-Shabaab, Converts, East Africa, Refugees

Sandstorm over Mandera, one of three provinces in NE Kenya (Photo: Open Doors International)

Christians in Somalia face “tremendous pressure, societal resistance and outright fear,” according to Elijah M Brown, Executive Vice President of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative. In a blog post, Brown quotes the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as saying: “Although conversion is currently legal in Somalia, it is not . . . Read More

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