Tag: Sahel

Burkina Faso: Fulani pastor brings hope to stigmatised communities

October 19, 2020 Burkina Faso Burkina Faso, Churches, Djibo, Fulani herdsmen, Islamic extremism, Sahel, Terrorism, West Africa

A primary schoolboy walks to school in Dori, northeastern Burkina Faso. (Getty Photo)

The disproportionate presence of ethnic Fulani among Islamist militants wreaking havoc in the Sahel and West Africa has led to a stigmatisation of the Fulani generally, says a Protestant pastor from Burkina Faso. In April security forces went into Djibo, a town in the northern part of Burkina Faso and . . . Read More

Burkina Faso church leader killed by Islamists: ‘I’d rather die than leave my community’

May 2, 2019 Burkina Faso Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Djibo, IDPs, Islamic extremism, Islamic State West Africa Province, Ken Elliott, Sahel, Sirgadji, Soum, West Africa

An outdoor church outside a home western Burkina Faso.(Photo: CIF Action via Flickr; CC 2.0)

Gunmen who attacked a Protestant church in Burkina Faso on 28 April asked the pastor and five others to convert to Islam before they killed them, World Watch Monitor has learned. Last Sunday’s violence in the West African country appears to have been the first attack, specifically on a church . . . Read More

Attacks against Copts ‘among deadliest acts of religious persecution’ – report

September 14, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Copts, Egypt, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Lake Chad, Sahel, Somalia, Syria, Tony Blair, Women, Yemen

This is one of the fifty five photos that is part of the photo story "Renewed day by day," commissioned by World Watch Monitor, exploring the extensive damage to churches in Egypt's Minya region that took place in late August 2013.

Attacks by members of the Islamic State group against Egypt’s Coptic Christian community “were among the deadliest acts of religious persecution” last year, according a new report presented in Washington DC yesterday, 13 September. “Fifty-three per cent of ISIS attacks against the public in 2017 were aimed at the Coptic . . . Read More

Archbishop of Canterbury raises profile of Nigeria attacks as new humanitarian crisis looms

July 19, 2018 Nigeria Adamawa, Benue, Berom, Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Fulani herdsmen, Kaduna, Kogi, Muhammadu Buhari, Nasarawa, Nigeria, Plateau, Sahel, Taraba, West Africa

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has challenged the British government on how much it is doing to help end violent attacks on Christians in Nigeria. His comments, made in a House of Lords debate on Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram on Tuesday (17 July), follow the publication of a . . . Read More

Jeff Woodke’s wife releases third video plea for news of her husband

June 29, 2018 Niger Abalak, Jeff Woodke, Kidnapping, Mahamadou Issoufou, Niger, Sahel

Jeff Woodke (Photo: Woodke's Facebook page)

The wife of an American missionary abducted 20 months ago in Africa’s Sahel region has put out a new video pleading for his safe return. In the 4’10’’ footage released on Tuesday (26 June), in French, Els Woodke reiterated her despair and desire to be in touch with her husband’s . . . Read More

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

Burkina Faso: Kidnappers release pastor and his family after four days

June 8, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Children, Djibo, Education, Fulani herdsmen, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, Sahel, Soum, Tuareg

The pastor abducted on Sunday with his family in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum has been released. Local sources told Omega Radio that Pastor Pierre Boena, his son David and his daughter-in-law, Ami Sawadogo, were released yesterday (7 June). The report did not specifically mention the two granddaughters, Fasne-wendé . . . Read More

US missionary, captive for 20 months, is alive, reports Niger’s president

June 7, 2018 Niger Abalak, Jeff Woodke, Mahamadou Issoufou, MUJAO, Niger, Sahel, West Africa

A US missionary kidnapped in Niger in October 2016 is alive, according to the West African nation’s president. Jeff Woodke, who worked for Jeunesse en Mission Entraide et Developpement (JEMED) was abducted by unknown assailants late in the evening of Friday 14 October, 2016, from the town of Abalak in . . . Read More

Second Christian leader in two weeks kidnapped in Burkina Faso

June 5, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Children, Djibo, Education, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, Sahel, Soum, West Africa

A Christian pastor and three members of his family have been kidnapped in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum, two weeks after the kidnapping of another Christian leader and his wife. Pierre Boena, a pastor with an Assembly of God church, was kidnapped during the evening of Sunday 3 June . . . Read More

Sudan: ‘Put brakes on’ normalising relations, rights groups tell US

May 16, 2018 Sudan Churches, Human rights, Religious freedom, Sahel, Sanctions, Sudan, Terrorism, UK, USA

A Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebel soldier in South Kordofan state where thousands of people fled the Nuba Mountains in 2012 to escape fighting between the rebel group and the government's armed forces. (Photo: ADRIANE OHANESIAN/AFP/GettyImages)

Rights groups have urged the United States to refrain from removing Sudan from its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. “New circumstances have emerged in Sudan that make US efforts at full normalisation dramatically ill-timed,” said the Washington DC-based Enough Project in a recent report. The NGO, which focuses on . . . Read More

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