Persecution of Christians in Africa: we have seen the same denial of coronavirus aid in Pakistan. Here at ChristianPersecution.com, we reported on March 31 of an instance of this in Karachi, and on April 6 of another such incident in Lahore. Now this report reveals that the same thing is happening in Nigeria, Somalia, and northern Uganda. In all too many areas of the world, Christians and other religious minorities are routinely subjected to multiple forms of discrimination and harassment. To continue this discrimination during the coronavirus pandemic is particularly cruel.
Please pray that the Christian communities in Nigeria, Somalia, and northern Uganda will be able to endure this martyrdom and experience a resurrection, and that relief will come to this courageous and long-suffering Christian community.
For previous coverage of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria from ChristianPersecution.com, see here. For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Somalia, see here. For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of Christian persecution in Uganda, see here.
“Christian minorities ‘back of queue’ in coronavirus aid – some rations six times smaller,” by David Williamson, Express, April 29, 2020:
CHRISTIAN minorities have been forced to the “back of the queue” for aid as the coronavirus pandemic spreads, according to a leading religious freedom charity.
Open Doors reports that in one area of Nigeria Christian families say they are receiving food rations which are six times smaller than their non-Christian neighbours. This comes as Christians across the developing world are targeted by conspiracy theorists who blame them for the virus. The charity is helping deliver food to people in Uzbekistan who have been denied aid because of their religion, and in India there are fears in churches that the promise of support will be used to bribe people to abandon their faith.
It also provided protective clothing to nurses in a Gulf state – which has not been named for security reasons – where Christians were denied this vital resource.
In Somalia, the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab has blamed the virus on “crusader forces”, and similar accusations have been made in northern Uganda.
Open Doors reports that minority Christian communities feel “shunted to the back of the queue for aid and forgotten”.
Jo Newhouse, Open Doors’s spokeswoman for sub-Saharan Africa, said: “We are only at the dawn of the unfolding of this pandemic in this part of Africa. There are many causes for concern for Christian minorities, like the economic impact of continued violence against Christians amid lockdowns, marginalisation of Christians, especially [converts], and Christians being blamed to have caused the virus.”
Open Doors’s warning comes as a major report from International Christian Concern takes Nigeria’s government to task for failing to “curb the tide of violence, killings and abductions” by militant groups. It says that in the first three months of this year there were at least 766 deaths related to terror or militant activity and the violence has started to spread to southern states.
The terrorist organisation Boko Haram has made international headlines with its kidnap of schoolgirls but Christians also live in fear of attacks by groups from within the nomadic Fulani population. These militants have reportedly destroyed at least 1,500 churches in recent years….
