Burkina Faso: Fulani pastor brings hope to stigmatised communities

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

Swiss woman, hostage almost 5 years, killed by Islamist extremists in Mali

Beatrice Stockli settled in Timbuktu in 2000 and was first kidnapped for 10 days in 2012
A Swiss missionary Beatrice Stockli – kidnapped from Timbuktu in northern Mali in January 2016 – was killed only weeks before other hostages were freed by Islamist extremists, in an apparent prisoner-hostage swap negotiated by the new transitional government in Mali. News of her execution came from Sophie Petronin, a . . . Read More

“Incessant killing more dangerous than Coronavirus”: report on Nigeria to UK Parliament

“Incessant killing more dangerous than Coronavirus”: report on Nigeria to UK Parliament
“The incessant killing is more dangerous than Coronavirus” …The words of a community leader in central Nigeria – after coronavirus had reached his country – after an April attack in which nine people died, including a pregnant woman and her three year old. His reaction is one of several testimonies . . . Read More

Nigerian girl, 17, escapes month in locked room after abduction and forcible conversion to Islam

According to the UN, over 4,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram alone in northeast Nigeria. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)
Sadiya Amos, aged 17, went missing from north central Kaduna in northern Nigeria on the night of 5th January. On 7th January, some men came to force her father Amos Chindo to attend a Sharia court in Anchau (in Kubau) without telling him what offence he had committed or even . . . Read More

Mass exodus of teachers triggers education crisis in north east Kenya

Sandstorm over Mandera, one of three provinces in NE Kenya (Photo: Open Doors International)
Recent killings of non-local teachers in north-eastern Kenya by suspected al-Shabaab militants have triggered a further mass exodus from the predominantly Muslim region, after at least one previous exodus in March 2018. According to Kenya Ministry of Education figures, 32 teachers have been killed in militants’ attacks in the region . . . Read More

Violent Islamist militancy spreads into weak states across sub-Saharan Africa

Nigerien soldiers on patrol near the town of Arlit, north-central Niger. (Photo: Getty)
The newly-released annual World Watch List (WWL) of the top 50 countries in which it is most difficult to live as a Christian shows that, especially in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa, the rise of Islamist militancy has become a challenge not only to Christians, but also to the existence . . . Read More