Tag: Al-Shabaab

Beheaded Kenyans belonged to local church

July 11, 2017 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Kenya, Pandaguo

Security forces on guard after Al-Shabaab terrorists killed 147 and injured 79 students at Garissa University College in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 2, 2015. (Photo: Getty Images)

A number of the nine Kenyan men beheaded by Islamist militants Al-Shabaab on Friday night (11 July) belonged to a local church, local sources told World Watch Monitor. One witness, Johnson Kitsao, told the Washington Post earlier the attackers were “specifically looking for non-Muslim men”. The attack took place late . . . Read More

‘Tremendous pressure’ on Christians in Somalia

June 28, 2017 Somalia Al-Shabaab, Converts, East Africa, Refugees

Sandstorm over Mandera, one of three provinces in NE Kenya (Photo: Open Doors International)

Christians in Somalia face “tremendous pressure, societal resistance and outright fear,” according to Elijah M Brown, Executive Vice President of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative. In a blog post, Brown quotes the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as saying: “Although conversion is currently legal in Somalia, it is not . . . Read More

Al-Shabaab sex-slave programme to ‘breed next generation of fighters’

May 31, 2017 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Garissa, Mombasa, Somalia, Women

A Kenyan woman searching for her two brothers, suspected of joining the Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants Al-Shabaab, has discovered that women are being seized and trafficked by the group as sex slaves. Her findings are revealed in the BBC report, The sex slaves of al-Shabab. During her search, Salama Ali uncovered stories . . . Read More

US Vice-President says Trump will protect Middle East Christians and flush out ‘terrorists’

May 12, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Donald Trump, Islamic State, Mike Pence, Taliban

US Vice-President Mike Pence has said that the Trump administration is committed “to defend[ing] Christians, and those of all faiths, whose freedom of religion is threatened”. He was speaking on the first day of the World Summit In Defence of Persecuted Christians in Washington DC, which has been organised by . . . Read More

Islamist extremism: a growing phenomenon in East Africa

April 5, 2017 Al-Shabaab, East Africa, Islamic extremism, Salafism, Somalia

Islamist extremism in East Africa frequently centres on Somalia and the violent actions of Al-Shabaab, yet local adherents to extremist versions of Islam can now be found throughout East Africa, reveals the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, in a new report. The growth of the Salafist ideology in the region has . . . Read More

‘I wish I could forget’: student survivors of Kenya university attack, 2 years on

March 31, 2017 Al-Shabaab, Garissa, Kenya

Two years ago, on the eve of Good Friday, 2015, Al Shabaab militants besieged Garissa University campus in Kenya’s volatile northeast. 147 students died that day. Muslims were spared, but Christians targetted: the attackers killed all students present at an early morning Christian prayer meeting, and hunted down several more hiding in rooms. Survivors . . . Read More

Middle East faith & money toxic for Horn of Africa

February 15, 2017 Africa, Al-Shabaab, Arabian Peninsula, East Africa, Eritrea, Houthis, Islamic extremism, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sufi, United Arab Emirates, Wahhabism, Yemen

There’s a long-standing connection between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, shaped by trade and faith. Former BBC Africa Editor Martin Plaut explores this relationship, which has caused increased tensions between and within the countries in the Horn, and which has affected the Christians there badly. Over centuries, . . . Read More

Presidential change in Somalia unlikely to improve situation for Christian minority

February 8, 2017 Somalia Al-Shabaab, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Mogadishu, Somalia

Air traffic over Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, was halted today (8 Feb) as MPs and senators gathered at the airport to elect former Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo as the country’s new president. Newly elected President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo is Somalia’s former Prime Minister (2012 photo). The outgoing president, Hassan Sheikh . . . Read More

12 killed in attack ‘by Al-Shabaab gunmen targeting Kenyan Christians’

October 25, 2016 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Islamic extremism, Mandera, Somalia

Six people were killed during this Al-Shabaab attack on the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in July. Twelve people have been killed in an attack in north-east Kenya believed to have been carried out by the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab. Media outlets sympathetic to the group reported that the latest incident . . . Read More

Al-Shabaab claims killing of 6 Christians in northeast Kenya raid

October 6, 2016 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Garissa, Kenya, Mandera

The six people killed in this morning’s attack in north-east Kenya by Al-Shabaab were Christians, according to the militant group’s own radio station, Radio Andalus. The militia attacked at about 2:45am this morning, 6 October. It reports that the grenade and gun attack on a residential compound in Mandera, on . . . Read More

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