Christian Persecution – Africa

DAMBOA, Nigeria (Compass) — A Christian-Muslim conflict in Damboa in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state resulted in the deaths of 15 Christians, and four churches were burned.

ISTANBUL, July 6 (Compass) — Officials from Egypt’s powerful State Security Intelligence (SSI) agency detained a Coptic Orthodox Christian for the fourth time in early June, interrogating him under torture on accusations of preaching Christianity to Muslims.

GARFIELD, NJ (ANS) — The indiscriminate slaughter of more than two million people, mostly black Christians, but also Muslims and animists, in southern Sudan, has been brought about by the National Islamic Front (NIF) who long ago declared a jihad (holy war) on the south. Human rights observers say that NIF violates almost every provision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Screams pierced the air as invaders forced their way onto the farm just outside Gweru, Zimbabwe.

Officers from Brunei’s Internal Security Department (ISD) have questioned indigenous church leaders during the last few months about an organized prayer program authorities are concerned is a threat to the stability of the Southeast Asian Muslim sultanate.

Pushing aside years of internal disputes, churches in the West Africa country of Niger are finding unity is giving them a new boldness to face violent crime and a more aggressive Islam.

Five Nigerian Christians — two priests and three church members — are currently facing trial for assisting two Christian girls who escaped from arranged marriages.

Rev. Al Sharpton recently returned from Sudan after a fact-finding trip to address the issue of slavery in the Africa’s largest nation.

The Bauchi state government in northern Nigeria has threatened to demolish two churches for zoning violations.

Ethnic violence between the Bajju and Ikulu ethnic groups in the Zangon Kataf region of Kaduna state in northern Nigeria have led to the killing of a pastor and two others.

Every Friday, during the Muslim holy day, a special group of Christians meet in a house.

Christian leaders in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state have accused the government of coercing Muslim converts to Christianity into attacking Christians and demolishing church buildings.

The leader of a Kenyan “Jesus” film team ministry supported by churches and individuals through Christian Aid narrowly survived a murder attempt April 3. However, three neighbors who rushed to his aid in the 3 a.m. attack were shot and killed by the attackers.

A top leader of Timothy Training Institute in Mozambique was murdered Sunday in a robbery in Maputo.

Legislation designed to further the United States’ involvement in helping end a Sudanese campaign marked by religious persecution has been reintroduced in Congress.

At least five churches were destroyed during February in northern Nigeria as the controversial implementation of Islamic law continued in several states.

Dozens of Nigerian Christian families have fled to Nigeria’s neighbor, Cameroon, because of mounting pressure resulting from the implementation of the Islamic legal system, or “sharia,” by the Borno state government.

Five of seven Christians arrested in December and January for alleged “cult” activities and detained under Brunei’s Internal Security Act have been released. It was not known if any conditions were attached to their release, which occurred during the week of February 12, but they were reportedly told not to leave the country or talk about their detention, according to a source who did not want to be identified.

Muslim extremists have been deliberately targeting Christian women for rape in northern Nigeria’s Sokoto state since the introduction of the Islamic legal code, or “sharia,” Christian leaders there say.