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

Al-Shabaab singles out 11 to kill in bus attack in northern Kenya; raises fear for Christians

Teachers working in north-eastern Kenya demonstrated in February 2015, asking to be reassigned following the killing of 20 of their colleagues in an attack by Islamist militants. (Photo: Getty Images)
Eleven people, almost all known to be Christians, were killed during an attack by the Islamist Al-Shabaab group on a bus in Kenya’s border region with Somalia on 6 December. The militants forced the bus, owned by Medina Bus Company (which transports people and goods between Kenya’s capital Nairobi and north-east . . . Read More

“I was last to come out alive”- Kenyan student on her life-changing injuries from Garissa

Reachel Ginkonyo, in Kenya, in a wheelchair after surviving the Garissa massacre, April, 2015
Four years ago, on the eve of Good Friday – the day on which Christians remember Jesus Christ’s crucifixion – 143 Kenyan university students were killed, singled out by Al-Shabaab gunmen for their Christian faith. Four more died after armed forces arrived, making it the deadliest terrorist incident in Kenya . . . Read More

For persecuted Christian women, violence is compounded by ‘shaming’

Women to women conference in Ethiopia, February 2018.
It would be hard to argue the world is unaware that Islamic State fighters used rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war against Iraq’s Yazidi women: Nadia Murad shared the 2018 Nobel Prize after she told the world of her personal ordeal at their hands. However, testimonies from . . . Read More

Kenya: Two Christian teachers killed by suspected Al-Shabaab attackers

The house near Arabia Boys Secondary school, where the two non-local teachers died after an attack suspected Al-Shabaab militants last week. (Photo: Facebook)
Two Christian school teachers were killed in an attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Kenya’s Mandera County, near the Somali border, last week. Philip Okumu, 26, and Daniel Wekesa 39, died on Wednesday (10 October) after assailants raided the house for non-local teachers in Arabia Boys Secondary School, about one . . . Read More

Kenyan worship leader one of two killed for failing to say Islamic prayer of faith

Security forces guard the Garissa University College after Al-Shabaab militants killed at last 147 students here in an attack in April 2015. (Photo: Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Two people were killed for failing to recite the Islamic statement of faith when militants, believed to belong to the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, attacked their bus in eastern Kenya on Friday, 14 September. Seven men stopped the bus while it was on its way to Garissa, between the towns of Iljara and . . . Read More

Ongoing religious freedom challenges in the Commonwealth

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed Heads of State of the Commonwealth member states at Windsor Castle, west of London, on 20 April 2018. (Photo: JACK TAYLOR/AFP/Getty Images)
A new report on religious freedom in Commonwealth member states says minorities in India, Malaysia and Nigeria have the least freedom to practise their faith. Using data from the Pew Global Religious Futures Project, the new report by the Council of Christians and Jews noted that Christianity is the largest . . . Read More

Commonwealth worst offenders urged to face up to poor levels of religious freedom

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari received Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at Nigeria's High Commission in London on 11 April 2018. (Photo: Facebook)
A charity that supports persecuted Christians has urged Commonwealth heads of government meeting in England next week to address poor levels of religious liberty in their countries. The charity Open Doors warned that unless representatives of the 53 Commonwealth nations “explicitly include[ed] the right to freedom of religion or belief . . . Read More