Morning Star News (MSN) reports on Tuesday, the Islamic militants attacked the Unguwan Gankon village, killing 16-year-old Takama Paul and another Christian, 30-year-old Kefas Malachy Bobai, a father of three children, Luka Binniyat of the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) said.

“Armed Fulani militia invaded Unguwan Gankon village in Gora Ward, Zangon Kataf LGA, and killed two persons and burned seven houses,” Binniyat said in a press statement. “Wary neighbors, however, came to the rescue, and the murderers fled.”

Earlier on Monday, the Fulani militants murdered Bulus Joseph, 48, a Christian farmer, and a father of nine children. Joseph’s wife and three of his children were also attacked but survived, Binniyat said.

“Bulus Joseph was murdered gruesomely on his farm at Sabon Gida Idon, along the Kaduna-Kachia road, by armed Fulani militia,” Binniyat said. “He stood up to the killers so that his wife and three children could escape, which they did. But he paid the price with his life, as he was sub-humanly butchered by the cold-blooded murderers.”

As CBN News reported last week, Muslim Fulani militants in Kachia County on Aug. 17 killed four Christians and kidnapped their driver, Danlami Dariya, as their vehicle made its way from Katul village.  One of the victims was a pastor with the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), according to SOKAPU. MSN corrected its report on Friday, writing witnesses said the attack took place on Sunday, Aug. 16.

The Rev. Adalchi Usman, pastor of an ECWA congregation in Unguwan Madaki village in Kajuru County, was shot dead in an ambush on him and three other Christians by Muslim Fulani militants as they were traveling out of the community, according to MSN.

Armed Fulani militiamen also attacked the village near Banikanwa, Kachia County, killing four people and wounding six others. 

“Part of the village was burnt after the attackers looted the village,” Binniyat told MSN. “This is to further show that the siege on southern Kaduna communities is still ongoing. The genocide is still much on. For southern Kaduna, the past five years that Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai has been governor, it has been a grim horror tale of blood, destruction, and hopelessness which we shall never forget.”

Binniyat said 50,000 Christians have been displaced from 109 villages now occupied by armed Fulani extremists in Kachia, Kajuru, Chikun, and Kaura counties, all in southern Kaduna state.

Nigeria is ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.

Source: cbn.com

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The 84-year-old man in Shanxi Province, China, was among a number of Christians in several provinces ordered to remove Christian imagery from their homes and replace them with pictures of Communist leaders, religious rights magazine Bitter Winter reported.

“The township [Chinese Communist] Party [CCP] secretary asked me to take down and throw away the cross and told me to pray to Xi Jinping from then on,” the unidentified Christian told Bitter Winter. “Xi Jinping is a man, not God. I feel saddened for the cross being taken down, but there is nothing I can do.”

Similar reports have emerged from at least five provinces over the last few months, with authorities urging believers — often low-income households reliant on government assistance — to replace crosses and images of Jesus in their homes with posters of Communist Party leaders, or lose welfare benefits.

In June, a village official in Lin County repeatedly ordered villagers through social media to remove all religious symbols from their homes, Bitter Winter reported. 

“He stated that the cross symbolized heterodox teachings, which should be purged as per orders from higher authorities. If not, they will be held criminally accountable. The official stressed that impoverished households must replace the symbols with images of Xi Jinping,” the outlet said. 

Officials in Lin County threatened to cancel poverty alleviation allowances if Christians refused to discard their faith-based books and other items. One Christian told Bitter Winter that every household was ordered to display portraits of Xi and that residents were to provide photos of themselves beside them. 

In the southeastern province of Jiangxi, officials tore down crosses and other Christian imagery in the homes of officially recognized Three-Self Church members. When challenged, the officials told believers they were implementing state-issued orders.

“Though reluctant, the impoverished Christians had to remove the symbols since the officials threatened to cancel their subsistence allowance if they disobeyed. People must follow the party that gives them money, not God, the officials claimed,” Bitter Winter said.

It was previously reported that in April, the government of Xinyu city in the southeastern province of Jiangxi canceled a disabled Christian’s minimum living subsidy and a monthly disability allowance of 100 RMB (about $14) because the believer continued to attend worship services despite government orders. 

In 2017, CCP officials visited believers’ homes in Yugan county of Jiangxi province and removed 600 Christian symbols from Christians’ living rooms, and hung 453 portraits of the Communist leader in their place, according to a report from the South China Morning Post.

SCMP, a newspaper that kowtows to the communist regime, claimed the move was part of a state-sponsored campaign to alleviate poverty in the region since some CCP members believe families’ faith is to blame for poverty.

“Many poor households have plunged into poverty because of illness in the family. Some resorted to believing in Jesus to cure their illnesses,” the head of the CCP campaign told SCMP. “But we tried to tell them that getting ill is a physical thing, and that the people who can really help them are the Communist Party and General Secretary Xi.”

Last year, authorities with the CCP removed the Ten Commandments from nearly every Three-Self church and meeting venue in a county of Luoyang city and replaced them with the president’s quotes.

Following the implementation of revised religious regulation rules in February of 2018, Communist officials have shut down churches, arrested congregations, and attempted to rewrite the Bible in efforts to free religion from perceived foreign influence, 

China’s campaign to sinicize religion originated in a speech by Xi at the National Religious Work Conference in April 2016. At the time, Xi stated that in order to “actively guide the adaptation of religions to socialist society, an important task is supporting China’s religions’ persistence in the direction of sinicization.”

Persecution watchdog Open Doors USA ranks China at No. 23 on its list of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The nonprofit notes that while China’s constitution protects the right to religion, houses of worship are often tightly controlled and even shuttered if deemed too large, too political, or invite foreign guests.

Source: christianpost.com, Author: Leah MarieAnn Klett

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The London-based Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, an interdenominational aid agency serving persecuted Christians in Muslim-majority Pakistan, reports that Sohail Masih in the Nowshera Virkan in Punjab province was arrested on Aug. 5.

Following a protest by a crowd of enraged Muslims who heard about Masih’s comment online, police officially charged Masih under sections 295-A and 295-C of the Pakistani Penal Code.

Section 295-C prohibits the use of derogatory remarks toward Islam or Muhammad and makes violations punishable by death. It is the same charge leveled against Christian mother Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death and spent over a decade in prison before her acquittal in 2018. 

“This is not the first case of its kind, and several Christians like Imran Nadeem, Nabeel Masih and Patras, Kaleem and Qamar David [died in Jail] have been charged with blasphemy for sharing or having blasphemous contents either on their phone or on their computers,” CLAAS-UK Director Nasir Saeed said in a statement shared with The Christian Post.

“It is difficult to prevent the abuse of social media platforms like WhatsApp when others can easily harass Christians and ‘plant evidence’ on them,” he added. “An example: if someone shares blasphemous content to a Christian’s page, this could result in blasphemy charges against the Christian, even if the Christian did not directly interact with the content.”

According to the Union of Catholic Asia News, Masih’s Facebook comment stems from a discussion online about the Islamic sacrifice tradition of Eid-al-Adha, which took place on July 30-31. 

“It is not possible that the blood of goats and bulls can wash away sins,” Masih was quoted as writing in a post. “The incident of Miraj [an Islamic belief that Muhammad ascended to Heaven to talk with the prophets] is based on a lie.”

Isra and Miraj is observed annually to honor the Islamic prophet’s nighttime journey from Mecca to a faraway mosque and Muslims’ belief that he ascended to Heaven and was shown Hell. 

A local mosque worship leader named Allama Muhammad Abdul Sattar filed a criminal report against Masih, UCA News reports.

“The culprit shared the post with two people. They visited my madrasa and showed it,” Sattar was quoted as claiming. “Masih mocked the Miraj incident and the sacrifice which is a principle of Islam. Muslims were extremely hurt.”

The Punjab Assembly recently passed the Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam Bill that prohibits the publication of objectionable material. 

“It is a very worrying situation as the misuse of the blasphemy law continues to rise and instead of taking steps to stop its misuse, the government continues to pass legislation which makes the existing law more stringent,” Saeed added.  

CLAAS-UK reports that local Christians in the area are “scared.” In the past, there has been societal backlash toward Christian communities in Pakistan after blasphemy allegations. 

The organization pointed to past “mayhem” in communities like Gojra, Sanglalhill and Joseph Colony, where “infuriated masses” attacked and burned several houses and churches as well as killed several people. 

Police officers were deployed to protect the Christian community in Nowshera Virkan after the accusation against Masih, according to CLAAS-UK.

Khalid Shehzad, a Catholic member of the National Lobbying Delegation, told UCA News that meetings were held by locals of the area to “avoid any clash.” However, Shehzad said the “pressure kept mounting” from the radical hardline Islamic organization Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.

After the Pakistan Supreme Court acquitted Bibi in the fall of 2018, TLP organized nationwide protests in opposition to Bibi being freed from the death penalty for blasphemy. 

“Their activists outnumber the police, who succumb to pressure and register blasphemy cases,” Shehzad explained. “The victim spends his whole life on trial. Semi-literate pastors teach hate.”

Saeed said that enraged radicals in Pakistan have taken “the law into their own hands” in the past. 

“[M]any have begun to believe that killing a blasphemer is their religious duty, as we have recently seen with a man being shot dead in a Peshawar courtroom, with the killer being hailed a hero of Islam,” Saeed stressed. 

In 2014, a Christian couple was burned to death inside of a brick kiln by an enraged Muslim mob after they were falsely accused of ripping pages out of a Quran. 

“In the past, we have seen that uncontrolled masses have attacked the police station, taken the person into police custody and burned him alive in front of the police station,” Saeed added. “But hardly anyone has been brought to justice. Such inaction from the government encourages people to take the law into their own hands and decide the fate of the alleged blasphemer there and then.”

Pakistan is ranked as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USA’s 2020 World Watch List. 

At the U.S. State Department’s 2019 Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom last July, Pakistani rights activist Shaan Taseer said that there are as many as 200 people jailed in Pakistan on blasphemy charges. 

At the same function, U.S. National Security Council Senior Director for South and Central Asia Lisa Curtis explained that there are more people imprisoned for blasphemy in Pakistan than in all other countries combined. 

That doesn’t mean that blasphemy laws are not a problem elsewhere. 

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Tuesday condemned the death sentence handed to a 22-year-old Nigerian singer by a Sharia court in Kano state Nigeria. The singer, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, was accused of insulting Muhammad in a song.

Source: christianpost.com, Author: Samuel Smith

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Chen Wensheng often carries a wooden cross inscribed with the words “Glory to our Savior” and “Repent and Be Saved by Faith” as he shares the Gospel with passersby.

A street evangelist, Chen, who is part of the Xiaoqun Church in Hengyang, located in China’s Hunan province, was sentenced on Aug. 3 after authorities detained him because of his evangelistic activity, persecution watchdog China Aid reports.

Because of his evangelistic efforts, Chen is frequently arrested and detained at the police station, but instead of getting offended, he repeatedly urged the officers to believe in Jesus Christ.

When officers asked him whether believing in Jesus can bring money, he responded that believing in Jesus is not for money, but to gain eternal life.

In his latest detention, his cross was confiscated at the police station. His church sent him daily commodities and arranged someone to visit his family.

These videos shared by China Aid include footage of Chen’s street evangelism booth and of him sharing his faith with officers as he was leaving the station from previous detention.

Source: believersportal.com

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A video surfaced last Wednesday showing the men kneeling while blindfolded and then shot from behind by AK-47-wielding masked militants in the West African country’s terror-ridden Borno state. The execution is said to have taken place two Sundays ago.

The abduction and killing of the men have since been claimed by the Islamic State in West Africa Province, an offshoot group of the deadly terrorist group Boko Haram. 

According to the SITE Intelligence Group, ISWAP claimed responsibility through its digital newspaper, al-Naba.

Morning Star News, a nonprofit that monitors acts of Christian persecution overseas, reports that three of the men shot from behind were identified as Christians by a resident of Borno. The two others executed in the video were said to be Muslims. In the 35-second video, a jihadi is reported to have condemned Christianity. 

“This is a message to all those being used by infidels to convert Muslims to Christianity,” a militant was quoted as saying in the Hausa language, as translated by Morning Star News. 

“We want you out there to understand that those of you being used to convert Muslims to Christianity are only being used for selfish purposes.”

The jihadi went on to say that “is the reason whenever we capture you.”

“[T]hey don’t care to rescue you or work toward securing your release from us, and this is because they don’t need you or value your lives,” the militant was quoted as saying.  “We, therefore, call on you to return to Allah by becoming Muslims. We shall continue to block all routes [highways] you travel.”

The militant warned that if others don’t “heed our warning,” the “fate of these five individuals will be your fate.”

Speaking with Morning Star News, a Borno resident identified the three Christians killed in the video as Ishaku Yakubu, an aid worker with Action Against Hunger and member of the Church of the Brethren; Luka Filibus, an aid worker with International Rescue Committee; and Joseph Prince, a private security firm worker who was a member of the Redeemed Christian Church in Maiduguri. 

Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed the killings and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Buhari also confirmed that the five men were aid workers affiliated with Action Against Hunger, the International Rescue Committee, REACH International and Nigeria’s State Emergency Management Agency. 

According to The New York Times, the men were traveling between the city of Maiduguri and Monguno when they were abducted in June. 

The new video is the latest execution video released by the Islamic State-aligned militants in Nigeria. 

In January, another video surfaced showing the execution of the Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s chapter in the Michika local government area of the Adamawa State. Andimi was reportedly executed after refusing to deny Christ. 

Also in January, another video showed an ISWAP child soldier executing a 22-year-old Christian student. 

Last December, another ISWAP video showed the extremist faction purporting to kill 11 Christian aid workers in what it called a “message [for] to the Christians in the world.”

Religious freedom activists worldwide have denounced the execution of the five aid workers. 

“ISWAP’s execution of aid workers is beyond reprehensible,” Tony Perkins, vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and prominent Washington-based social conservative activists, said in a statement. 

“The militant Islamic group shows no remorse as it continues to target civilians based on their faith, such as Leah Sharibu who was abducted by Boko Haram over two years ago.”

USCIRF Commissioner Frederick A. Davie, vice president of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, said that ISWAP and Boko Haram represent “neither the history nor the future of Islam in Africa.” 

“Their violent actions are a disgrace to the region’s vibrant Islamic heritage, and they must be countered by strong, inclusive partnerships between African nations and the international community, including the U.S. government,” Davie said. 

In 2016, ISWAP split from Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist insurgency that has caused havoc in northeast Nigeria and the Lake Chad region since 2002. ISWAP also declared its allegiance to the Islamic State, which at the time held territory in Iraq and Syria. 

Over the years, the two groups have killed and abducted thousands of people. According to the United Nations, over 3.4 million people have been displaced in northeast Nigeria.  

Boko Haram has developed a reputation as one of the world’s deadliest extremist groups that is responsible for making tens of thousands of people widows and orphans. 

The U.N. reported in April that the decade-long crisis in the northeast alone has left over 7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

The Nigerian government has faced criticism from international rights advocates who claim that it is not doing enough to prevent and halt the violence committed by Boko Haram and ISWAP in the northeast as well as the ongoing atrocities committed by radical Fulani herdsmen against predominantly Christian farming communities in the north-central states.

Advocates are calling for the appointment of a U.S. State Department special envoy to monitor the violence in Nigeria and across the Lake Chad region. A growing coalition of rights groups are warning of potential “genocidal” implications of actions are taken to thwart the violence. 

A new report published this week by the International Committee on Nigeria, a U.S.-based nonprofit working to secure a future for all Nigerians, includes testimonies of some of the over 60,000 victims of violence in Nigeria. The report features researched compiled and produced by the collaborative efforts of ICON and the International Organization on Peace-building & Social Justice.

“The ongoing violence and brutality perpetrated against innocent Nigerians by Islamist terrorists like Boko Haram and Fulani Militants has to stop; it’s that simple,” ICON co-founder Stephen Enada said in a statement. “President Buhari and his administration are attempting to dictate the narrative and condition the world, really, to believe that Nigeria’s Christians are safe from terrorism, which is simply untrue, as our report verifies. A U.S. Special Envoy is key to turning things around in Nigeria.”

Source: christianpost.com, Author: Samuel Smith

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According to Baptist Press, in a video interview by International Christian Concern released last week, a Christian named Liao Quiang, alongside his daughter and son-in-law shared the dangers of being a Christian in Communist China.

Liao had been a member of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu before the Chinese Community Party (CPC) shut it down in December 2018. Liao then fled to Taiwan with his extended family.

He asserted that the CPC, “makes you think that they are willing to compromise, because they know Americans care about freedom of religion. If China makes concession[s] in religious freedom, then [the] U.S. should compromise in trade. It’s CPC who politicizes religious freedom, not Christians.”

Liao noted that members of his church face continued persecution for their faith following its shutdown. The church’s founder, Wang Yi, and a church elder, he shared, were incarcerated.

The CPC also threatened Christian parents, telling them their children would be sent to government re-education camps if they are sent to church schools. Parents with adopted children are at risk of having them given back to their biological families.

“The reason why we left China is because the Chinese Communist Party is limitless in its persecution. They not only threatened us, normal adult, normal church members, but they threatened our children,” Liao said. “Some of our members have adopted children, and CPC forcibly sent the adoptive children back to the original family. That is the main reason why we fled China. Because we can’t guarantee our adopted child would not be taken away by them.”

One church family, Liao share had four adoptive children seized and returned to their birth family before later being distributed to other households.

“This is a living tragedy,” Liao said. “Their constant oppression made me feel we must flee China, because our children are most important to us.”

Liao believes that the CPC fears transparency as it would expose how they are violating religious freedom but fears that exposure could encourage further persecution.

“The biggest help is to report the persecution. Report it fairly. We aren’t saying the U.S. government should put pressure on the Chinese government. This isn’t what we hope for,” Liao said. “What CPC is most afraid of is being exposed. They are afraid of transparency.”

“We don’t want the government or the public to pressure CPC,” he added. “Because under such circumstances, CPC will definitely intensify religious persecution. The worse China-U.S. relations get, the more CPC persecutes Christians.”

The video interview with Liao was released alongside ICC’s latest report on Religious Suppression in China by ICC regional manager Gina Goh, which highlights  “legal underpinnings and practical implications of China’s systematic repression of religion.”

Goh noted that the CPC can redefine words in their Constitution at their convenience such as the word “normal” in the clause concerning the government’s protection of “normal religious activities.”

“Thus, the state will only protect those religions that it deems normal and is not obligated to do so if it deems a religious activity abnormal.” Goh wrote. “As a result, the government has the ability to crack down on certain religious practices or even disband them.”

Source: christianheadlines.com, Author: Milton Quintanilla

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The policy impacts low-income religious citizens who receive government assistance, according to Bitter Winter, a watchdog that monitors reports of persecution in China.

Multiple cities and towns across the country have implemented the policy.

In April, officials from several villages in Shanxi province were called together for a meeting and ordered by the government “to remove crosses, religious symbols and images from the homes of people of faith who receive social welfare payments” and replace them with portraits of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) and current President Xi Jinping.

A Christian in one of the villages told Bitter Winter that officials tore down Christian imagery in his home and hung a picture of Zedong.

“Impoverished religious households can’t receive money from the state for nothing – they must obey the Communist Party for the money they receive,” the Christian told Bitter Winter.

A house church pastor said village officials visited his home in May and replaced a cross with a picture of Zedong.

“All impoverished households in the town were told to display Mao Zedong images,” the pastor said. “The government is trying to eliminate our belief and wants to become God instead of Jesus.”

In Jiangxi province, government officials withdrew a monthly disability allowance and a living subsidy from a man who is disabled and Christian.

“Officials told me that we would be treated as anti-Party elements if my husband and I continued attending worship services,” the man’s wife told Bitter Winter.

Sometimes, there’s little warning. 

A Christian elderly woman in her 80s lost her government assistance after she said “thank God” while receiving her subsidy in January. She lives in Jiangxi province.

“They expected me to praise the kindness of the Communist Party instead,” she said.

Government officials in Shangqiu city in the province of Henan cancelled the government assistance for an elderly woman in her 70s after they discovered a cross image on her door.

“They tore it down immediately,” the elderly Christian told Bitter Winter. “Afterward, both my minimum living allowance and poverty alleviation subsidy were canceled. I am being driven to a dead end. I have diabetes and need injections regularly.”

Said a neighbor, “This little money she received from the government was her bread and butter. But it has been canceled because of a cross image, causing great harm to this woman.”

Source: christianheadlines.com, Author: Michael Foust

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Article 18, a London-based nonprofit that promotes religious freedom and tolerance for Christians in Iran, has reported on the arrests of Christians in three operations in the cities of Tehran, Karaj and Malayer that took place on June 30 and July 1. 

Along with the 12 Christians who were arrested, dozens of other Christians were forced to provide their contact details for future questioning, the organization noted.

According to Article 18, the first arrests occurred around 8 p.m. last Tuesday in Tehran’s Yaftabad district when 10 intelligence officers raided the home of a Christian convert where 30 Christians were gathered. 

The agents reportedly were polite at first when they were video recording the incident. But after the cameras were off, the Christians were said to have been mistreated. 

The agents read out a list of names that were written on an arrest warrant.

Included on that reported list were Joseph Shahbazian, an Armenian-Iranian Christian, and five Christian converts named Reza, Salar, Sonya, Mina and Maryam, who were present at the gathering.

The six of them were reportedly handcuffed, blindfolded and transported. The families were not immediately told where their loved ones have been transported to, Article 18 explained in a statement. 

Others at the gathering who were not arrested had their cell phones taken and required to fill out forms stating that their phones had not been confiscated by agents. 

Source: christianpost.com, Author: Samuel Smith

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The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp legislature, may formally approve the law, which broadens Beijing’s direct control over Hong Kong and erodes the city’s human rights and freedoms, at a June 28-30 meeting, according to The Epoch Times.

Submitted last week for deliberation, the draft covers four categories of crimes: succession, subversion of state power, local terrorist activities and collaborating with foreign or external foreign forces to endanger national security, according to the U.S.-based Christian persecution watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC).

“Under such laws, vocal Hong Kong clergy who have been supportive of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, such as Cardinal Joseph Zen and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, could be extradited to mainland China to be tried, since Beijing considers them to be threats to the regime,” said ICC.

“Other hundreds of protestant leaders or Christian organizations who have actively spoken out against the Hong Kong government might face the same fate, since Beijing has said it considers the mass protests that began last June as terrorist acts and any calls for Hong Kong’s independence from China as acts of sedition.”

In 1997, China had agreed for a “one country, two systems” arrangement to allow certain freedoms for Hong Kong when it received the city back from British control. The security law undercuts the promised autonomy.

“This law fundamentally compromises one-country, two-systems, and breach of the handover agreement. The details emerging put human rights in jeopardy,” the U.K.-based group Hong Kong Watch wrote on Twitter.

The European Parliament has voted to take China to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if the law is imposed.

The United States has also threatened to revoke Hong Kong’s special trading relationship with it and impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency revealed an explanatory note summarizing the draft, which says Beijing will set up a dedicated central government office in Hong Kong to manage national security affairs, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The office will be given the authority to assess Hong Kong’s security, gather and analyze intelligence, advise and supervise local authorities on national security matters and also handle select criminal cases, according to the report, which added that the office would exercise jurisdiction over “a very small number” of cases.

The office would also be empowered to oversee education about national security in Hong Kong schools.

In case of any discrepancies between the new law and Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the former would supersede, according to the explanatory note.

“Hong Kong will not be a bridgehead for exterior forces that jeopardize [China’s] national security,” Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, wrote on Facebook, according to the Times.

Source: cbn.com/ Author: Anugrah Kumar

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According to international Christian relief organisation, the Barnabas Fund, on 29th May, a convoy of traders was set upon while travelling from Titao to Sollé, in Loroum province. Fifteen were shot dead. Then, the next day, armed militants opened fire at random on those attending a cattle market in Kompienga province, murdering at least 30 people and injuring many others. On the same day, a humanitarian convoy was attacked by extremists in Barsalogho, Sanmatenga province, resulting in the deaths of six civilians and seven soldiers.

According to sources on the group, militants were thought to be targeting Christians and humanitarians transporting food to an internally displaced people (IDP) camp. 

One survivor recounted travelling in an ambulance in the convoy when it was attacked: “The driver shouted ‘forgive, forgive, we are also followers of the prophet Muhammad’. One of them [the gunmen] turned to his fellows saying ‘they have the same religion with us’.”

Once lauded as model nation in the region, championing of peace and democratic values, Burkina Faso has become a hotbed of anti-Christian violence in recent years, with innumerable attacks perpetrated against the faith community at the hands of Islamic insurgents. In 2016, there were 12 jihadist attacks, in 2017 there were 33 and in 2018 it ramped up to a staggering 158.

At the start of this year, Human Rights Watch released a report on the situation, noting that the attackers are seeking “to justify killings by linking victims to the government, the West, or Christian belief.” As part of its work on the ground, the group documented 256 killings of civilians in 20 attacks since April 2019 by groups allied with Al-Qaeda, including the local armed group Ansaroul Islam, and the Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS). 

Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Armed Islamist groups in Burkina Faso have attacked civilians with unmitigated cruelty and utter disregard for human life.

“Deliberately targeting farmers, worshippers, mine workers, displaced people and traders are war crimes.

“The Islamist armed groups need to immediately end their attacks on civilians.

“At the same time, the Burkina Faso government should take stronger steps to protect vulnerable communities from harm and impartially investigate and appropriately prosecute those implicated in war crimes.”

Source: premierchristian.news

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