Chad: Islamic extremists attack Christian communities, murder 17 people

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Fulani Islamic extremists murdered 17 people in attacks on Christian communities in southern Chad earlier this month, the Barnabas Fund reports.

The population of Chad was reported in 2010 to be 52–58% Muslim and 39–44% Christian. The government of this religiously diverse but impoverished country in central Africa was forced to declare a food emergency last year, and analysts believe chronic hunger and poverty have made it easier for radical Islamists to exert influence and power, and become an increasing threat to Christians.

On the morning of May 8, Fulani Muslim extremists carried out murderous armed raids on Christian communities in Logone Oriental, Barnabas Fund reports. Among those who were slain was Pastor Doumro Tadingao Gaston, and 12 congregants attending a prayer meeting in the village of Don.

“Around 20 villages in the region have been burned down, with several thousand people displaced by the violence,” Barnabas Fund reports. “This follows Islamist attacks on four other southern Chadian villages a month earlier, in which two pastors were killed and many other people injured.”

“Pray that the Lord will comfort His mourning and traumatized people. Ask that He will restrain the hand of extremists and bring peace,” Barnabas Fund requested in its report.

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