Last week, an Islamist attack on a church in in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic claimed the lives of at least two dozen Christians ~
At least 24 people are feared killed and more than a hundred injured following a fresh outbreak of violence in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, on Tuesday, 1 May. […]
On Tuesday, as President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and his government were attending the official 1 May ceremony marking International Workers’ Day, on the capital’s Avenue of Martyrs, thousands of people from the Diocese of Bangui gathered for a Mass at Notre Dame de Fatima (Our Lady of Fatima) Church, for “oath-taking” on the occasion of the anniversary of St. Joseph […]
It was about 10am, just after the homily, when the first gunshots and grenades erupted in the compound of the parish, creating panic among the worshippers. Some of them managed to flee, but others were hit by bullets and grenades.
World Watch Monitor summarizes the current conflict in CAR ~
Central African Republic has yet to fully emerge from a civil war fought partly along religious lines. Although the Islamist rebel group, Séléka, has been driven out of many parts of the country, attacks against Christians continue in the capital, Bangui, and in the mainly Muslim northeast. Christians have been forced to flee from their villages and are denied access to farming fields. Large groups of Christians live in extremely poor conditions in refugee camps.
According to the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in CAR, Joseph Inganji, the situation in CAR has been deteriorating for five years now. Inganji believes that in the next six months it may grow even worse ~
Speaking to World Watch Monitor last week, Inganji called on “all actors to sit around the table to have a shared analysis and joint planning, in order to cut the vicious cycle of violence, and respond according to each other and everyone’s mandate”.
CAR fell into chaos on 24 March 2013 when a predominantly Muslim coalition of rebels, known as Séléka, ousted President François Bozizé and took power.
Six months later, in September 2013, Séléka’s leader, Michel Djotodia, who had proclaimed himself president, disbanded the group and in January 2014 resigned as president, to be replaced by Catherine Samba-Panza.
Yet during her two-year reign, and that of her successor, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, the conflict continued. More than 14 armed groups are currently active in CAR, together controlling around three quarters of territory.
Recent violence in the eastern village of Séko and its surroundings claimed 46 lives, including that of a priest. Father Joseph Désiré Angbabata, 49, was killed when UPC militants (a Séléka offshoot) stormed his Saint Charles LWANGA parish on Wednesday, 21 March.
As usual, when radical Muslims are in the mood for jihad, Christians bear the brunt of their wrath. CAR is #35 on Open Doors list of countries where Christian persecution is significant ~
The conflict in CAR has resulted in violence and atrocities towards Christians at the hands of militant groups on both sides of the conflict. Gathering for worship is dangerous, as church buildings are sometimes burned and ransacked. Numerous church leaders have been violently attacked. Thousands of Christians have been displaced as a result of the conflict, forced to relocate to camps and relinquish their livelihoods.
Meanwhile, converts from Christianity also experience persecution at the hands of their immediate family members and local communities. These converts are often ostracized and violently pressured to renounce Christianity.
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Related:
Christians in the Central African Republic Desperately Need Your Prayers ~
“What happened to my family on that day of October 12th last year is that my old, lame mother was killed in our house,” said a resident of the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp named Yvette. “When the shooting began, I took the little children and ran to safety in the woods. When I came back, I found her beaten to death. Beaten badly. Personally, I don’t understand how you can possibly kill an elderly, lame woman. How can you just beat her until she is dead? On top of that, they also burned our house. But I did not denounce God. What is painful to me is that I don’t have the possibility to serve God like before. My father was a pastor, and I was one of the youth leaders. Now, I am serving God with fear in my heart. I even buried my mother with fear. I want you to pray for all of us. Ask God to bring back peace to our country. Things like these should never happen again. We should not have to lose our old people in this meaningless way.”
