Tag: Sub-Saharan Africa

From sub-Saharan Africa to China, Christians experience ‘high’ levels of persecution

January 15, 2020 Global News -- No Particular Country BJP, Boko Haram, Churches, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Minorities, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, World Watch List

Poster memorials and crosses for Christians who died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Easter Sunday, 2019

• In Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday more than 250 people, 45 of them children, were killed in attacks on three churches and hotels; more than 500 people were injured. • Bombs killed 20 at a Catholic church in Jolo in the southern Philippines. • In China, state-sanctioned and ‘underground’ . . . Read More

Chad: Sultan in Christian and Animist South is ‘threat for peace’

July 18, 2018 Chad Chad, Madrassas, Moyen-Chari, Sub-Saharan Africa

Chadian authorities have installed a sultan in the south Moyen-Chari region, increasing fears of further marginalisation among the Christian and Animist population. (Chad, like Nigeria, is roughly divided between a broadly Muslim north, and a broadly Christian and Animist south). A sultan traditionally holds spiritual authority over his subjects, as well . . . Read More

Trump tells Buhari: ‘We cannot allow Christians to be murdered’

May 1, 2018 Nigeria Benue, Dapchi, Donald Trump, Fulani herdsmen, Leah Sharibu, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria, Sahel, Sub-Saharan Africa, USA

US President Donald Trump decried the killings of Christians in Nigeria as he met with the country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, in Washington yesterday (30 April). Nigeria has been plagued by violence attributed to Fulani herdsmen in the Middle Belt and northeast. Benue state has been particularly affected, with attacks happening . . . Read More

Thousands of churches closed in Rwanda, as Cameroon considers following suit

April 6, 2018 Rwanda Cameroon, Churches, Kigali, Pentecostals, Rwanda, Sub-Saharan Africa

Pentecostal churches, like this one in Ethopia's capital Addis Baba, are mushrooming in sub-Sahara Africa. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Rwanda has closed thousands churches in the country since February for alleged “noise pollution” and failing to comply with building regulations. Now Cameroon – another majority-Christian country – is considering following suit. The call to shut down some of Cameroon’s Pentecostal churches follows reports of gross misconduct by a number . . . Read More

Amnesty: ‘Discrimination rife in all regions of the world … with deadly consequences’

February 23, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Boko Haram, Censorship, Cuba, Fidel Castro, Fulani herdsmen, Gujrat, Human rights, Iran, Lakshan Dias, Marawi, Mardan, Nadeem Masih, Nawaz Sharif, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Religious freedom, Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa

Buddhist flags are waved during a mass demonstration against Christianity in Sri Lanka, April 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A review of the human-rights situation in 159 countries during 2017, published by Amnesty International yesterday (22 February), shows that religious persecution continues in the form of threats, attacks, extrajudicial killings and even genocide, while harsh sentences continue to be handed out – sometimes even death sentences – for changing . . . Read More

Mali the ‘epicentre’ of jihadist groups in the Sahel

December 14, 2017 Mali Bamako, Mali, Sahel, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tuareg, UN

A Catholic bishop in Mali has highlighted the ongoing insecurity in the country and welcomed the decision to deploy a new multinational stabilisation force. “The security situation in different areas of Mali has been a concern for several months,” Fr. Edmond Dembele, General Secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Mali, . . . Read More

Churches evacuate and shelter migrants after fire devastates Dunkirk camp

April 11, 2017 Calais, Converts, Dunkirk, France, Grande-Synthe, Iran, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees, Sub-Saharan Africa

Local churches in Dunkirk helped to evacuate terrified migrants late last night (10 April) as a devastating fire spread through their camp in northern France. La Linière camp in Grande-Synthe, just outside Dunkirk, housed an estimated 1,500 migrants, including a handful of Christian converts, but has now been reduced to “a . . . Read More

‘We are in a catastrophe’

September 23, 2016 Ban Ki-moon, Boko Haram, Cameroon, Chad, Diffa, Lake Chad, London, Mahamadou Issoufou, New York, Niger, Nigeria, Samuel Dali, Sub-Saharan Africa, UN

Leaders of Africa’s Lake Chad Basin countries affected by Boko Haram’s intensifying insurgency over the past two weeks are calling on the international community to act urgently against the region’s ongoing humanitarian “catastrophe”. Presidents Muhammadu Buhari (Nigeria), Mahamadou Issoufou (Niger), Idriss Deby Itno (Chad) and Paul Biya (Cameroon) are scheduled . . . Read More

Pew reports decline in religious restrictions

June 28, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Religious freedom, Sub-Saharan Africa, Syria, Terrorism

In its latest report, Pew Research Center says there was an overall decline in religious restrictions and hostilities between 2013 and 2014, despite a continued rise in religion-related terrorism. The US-based “fact tank” ranked 198 countries and territories in the seventh report of its kind, titled “Trends in Global Restrictions . . . Read More

Freedom of religion or belief ‘undermined’ in corrupt countries

June 2, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, Colombia, Corruption, David Cameron, Eastern Europe, Europe, G20, Libya, London, Mexico, Middle East, Nigeria, North Africa, Religious freedom, Somalia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan, Yemen

Corruption is increasingly seen as a factor behind the persecution of minority Christians around the world, and the world leaders who gathered at an Anti-Corruption Summit in London in May showed they are beginning to pay more attention to the effects of corruption on freedom of religion or belief. Evidence . . . Read More

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