Tag: Mali

Niger: US aid worker Jeff Woodke released

March 20, 2023 Niger Abalak, Burkina Faso, Jeff Woodke, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Mali, Niger

Jeff Woodke (Photo: Woodke's Facebook page)

After more than six years in captivity in West Africa, longtime American Christian aid worker Jeff Woodke has been released. His wife, Els Woodke, was told Jeff was “in good condition,” according to a statement on a website campaigning for his release. “She has expressed her profound thanks to the . . . Read More

Priest, held by Islamist extremists for two years, freed in Mali

October 9, 2020 Niger Catholics, hostage, Islamic extremism, Italian, Kidnapping, Mali, priest

Italian priest Pier Luigi Maccalli, freed in Mali, worked in SW Niger till his kidnap in Sep 2018

An Italian priest abducted two years ago in Niger, close to the border with Burkina Faso, is among four hostages held by Islamist extremists who’ve been freed and flown to the capital of Mali, Bamako. The new Malian transitional government met the hostages, after Malian authorities freed scores of suspected . . . Read More

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

March 8, 2019 Global News -- No Particular Country Algeria, Colombia, Converts, Eritrea, Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Women, Yemen

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

Christian women at double risk of persecution – because of gender as well as religion

March 7, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Divorce, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Religious freedom, Trauma, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Women

Chibok girls. Two of them were abducted by Boko Haram in 2014. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

For the first time ever, the persecution of women as it differs to that of men has been examined by the analysts of the 2018 World Watch List. The list, compiled by Open Doors International, researches over 50 countries where it is most difficult for Christians to live. The resulting Gender . . . Read More

Kidnapped Colombian nun appears in another hostage video

January 30, 2018 Mali Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Gloria Argoti, Kidnapping, Mali

A new video of the Colombian nun kidnapped in the south of Mali almost a year ago has been released on the Internet. Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti, of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, was kidnapped on 7 February 2017 in Karangasso. “We have seen the video and we . . . Read More

Mali the ‘epicentre’ of jihadist groups in the Sahel

December 14, 2017 Mali Bamako, Mali, Sahel, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tuareg, UN

A Catholic bishop in Mali has highlighted the ongoing insecurity in the country and welcomed the decision to deploy a new multinational stabilisation force. “The security situation in different areas of Mali has been a concern for several months,” Fr. Edmond Dembele, General Secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Mali, . . . Read More

Mali: ‘Christians can simply be slaughtered’

December 11, 2017 Mali Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Islamic extremism, Mali, Missionaries, Tuareg

Christians from northern Mali, displaced by the violence that started in 2012, are settling and building homes in the south. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Sory* was threatened by Islamists when they heard about his work at a church in Djalloube, central Mali, and fled, leaving his family traumatised. “I started to face serious problems when the Islamists heard about me and the conversion of some of the people [from Islam to Christianity],” Sory says. . . . Read More

Fears of a security breakdown as Mali’s Catholic churches attacked

October 4, 2017 Mali Catholics, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Mali

Catholics in Mali have suffered a fresh wave of attacks at the hands of gunmen believed to be jihadists, amid a “dramatic” deterioration in security in the centre of the country. Several churches were attacked last month, according to the news agency AFP. In Dobara, 500 miles (800km) north of . . . Read More

Mali: Colombian nun ‘not in good health’ after 7 months as hostage

September 20, 2017 Mali Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Gloria Argoti, Mali

The Colombian nun who was taken hostage in northern Mali in February this year is still alive but her health is suffering, according to reports by Catholic news agency Fides. Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez Argoti “is alive but not in good health. She has problems with a leg and kidney”, . . . Read More

Mali Islamist to pay millions in compensation for damaged mausoleums, but nothing for churches

August 18, 2017 Mali Bamako, Gao, International Criminal Court, Mali, Timbuktu

The International Criminal Court has ordered an Islamist leader to pay 2.7m euros ($3.1m) for the destruction of mausoleums in Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu. Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi pleaded guilty to ordering the destruction of the historic shrines at the World Heritage Site during the occupation of northern Mali by . . . Read More

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