Displaying items by tag: jihadis

Attacks by jihadi rebels in central Mali have killed 132 civilians, showing that Islamic extremist violence is spreading from Mali’s north to more central areas. For several weeks rebels have been blocking the road between Gao in the north and Mopti in central Mali. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali is concerned by the extremist attacks against civilians in the Bandiagara region that have caused casualties and displaced populations. In a separate incident, a U.N. peacekeeper died from injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device. Since the beginning of 2022, several attacks have killed U.N. uniformed peacekeepers. Attacks on peacekeepers constitute war crimes. The U.N. peacekeeping mission began after France went there to remove rebels who were capturing cities and major towns the year before (2014). They currently have 12,000 troops, 2,000 police and other officers in Mali. Over 270 peacekeepers have died in the U.N.’s deadliest peacekeeping mission.

On 29 January Al-Qaeda’s Somali affiliate Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen released a video documenting preparations for a raid on Camp Simba US military base. The 55-minute video features a meeting between Al-Shabab leaders and the attackers; of training and preparations for the raid; final messages from the attackers; and drone footage of the raid in progress. The leader vowed more attacks on US targets and rallied his ‘soldiers of Allah’ saying, ‘I hope that base becomes the place where we hear the defeat of the disbelievers’, and encouraged Muslims in the Horn of Africa to join the ranks of his group. Also five churches were set ablaze in quick succession between 21 and 26 January. Pray for the fearful residents living in the area and the congregations of Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal and Catholic churches. See

Between 20 November and 3 December, at least thirty Christians were killed, and ten young women and girls raped, in attacks on five villages by the extremist Allied Democratic Forces. Locals described scenes of terrified Christians flooding into the streets as the jihadists surrounded churches, armed with guns, clubs, machetes, swords and axes. Fourteen Christians with severe wounds are in hospital in a critical condition, and at least fifteen people were abducted. A survivor, hiding in the latrine, watched through a vent as his wife and three children were murdered. A pastor In Mayitike said the militants tried to force villagers to convert to Islam before killing them. When his family refused to convert, they shot his wife in the head and cut their four children into pieces with a sword.

Violent extremists have spread across Burkina Faso. Traditional hunters and crime-fighting vigilantes have filled a governance vacuum and add a complexity to the crisis. A new group provides locals with weapons and two weeks’ training to combat jihadists. Many worry it will make matters worse. National troops are implicated in countless rights abuses, while French counter-terrorism forces have little impact. A jihadist attack on a church recently left 24+ people dead in a crisis that has displaced over 750,000 people since the beginning of last year. This insecurity has left displaced people in rural areas outside the reach of aid groups - and a lack of clear information on which militants are operating where - has made it difficult for humanitarians to negotiate access to affected people. Most attacks are attributed to groups linked to al-Qaeda and IS, with a patchwork of self-defence gangs and poorly equipped soldiers also being responsible for abuses.