NAIROBI, Kenya (OSV News) -- From Nigeria to Mozambique, Sudan and Congo to Burkina Faso, Christians across Africa were victims of horrific persecution in 2024, mainly because of their faith.
Armed gangs, militias and Islamist extremists killed, abducted and kidnapped Christians, violated women and girls, and burned down churches.
Catholic bishops, who spoke truth to power, pressing for religious freedom, democracy, human rights and a war on corruption, also became targets of the governments and politicians.
"The more the churches took a prophetic stand, the more they faced persecution," Father Innocent Halerimana Maganya, a Congolese priest and a lecturer at Tangaza University in Nairobi, told OSV News.
"The churches are the conscience of the nation, and when they play their role, there is likely going to be some kind of persecution," he said.
Father Maganya, a Missionaries of Africa priest, pointed to the clash between Congolese Archbishop Fulgence Muteba Mugalu of Lubumbashi, president of Congo bishops' conference, and Congolese military Gen. Eddy Kapend Yrung, after the latter issued orders banning the prelate from celebrating Mass in St. Sebastian Parish in the military camp of Vangu.
Archbishop Mugalu defied the orders, celebrated the Mass Nov. 24 and dismissed the general's orders as a violation of the freedom of religion guaranteed by the constitution.
The archbishop "was not intimidated by this illegal order, which is symptomatic of a blatant abuse of office, and went to St. Sebastian as planned for several days," the archdiocese said in a statement.
The tensions had followed the kidnapping of a young seminarian by soldiers on Nov. 18.
Earlier in April, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa and a fierce critic of President Félix Tshisekedi's government, faced the threat of prosecution over alleged "seditious" remarks criticizing the government's offensive against the rebels.
"When there is no official opposition in a country, the churches become the opposition. They cannot remain silent, but have to speak for the people," said Father Maganya. "That's why we see them colliding with the governments."
In Nigeria, armed gangs locally known as "bandits" -- which target Christians -- were making 2024 the worst year for security in the region's recent history. In November, the "bandits" had kidnapped -- and released -- three Catholic priests.
While comprehensive data has not been given for 2024 yet, between September 2022 and August 2023 alone, 21 Catholic priests were kidnapped in Nigeria, the bishops' conference said.
The Fulani herders -- militia dubbed the fourth deadliest terror group in the world -- also kidnapped civilians, abducted schoolchildren for ransom, while seizing farms and displacing thousands of Christian farmers.
Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri, Nigeria, said the church and Christian faithful in northeast Nigeria were suffering heavily from terrorist activities.
"Over the years, Christians have experienced rejection and persecution from both extremists and the state," the bishop told OSV News.
According to the bishop, the authorities often deny Christians land for construction of churches and houses, among other forms of discrimination.
In 2023, Bishop Doeme said, "there was a fire incident that engulfed the main Monday market inside Maiduguri City. The government only compensated the Muslim faithful whose shops and goods were affected but failed to reciprocate the same gesture towards Christians."
In September, floods submerged Maiduguri city and Borno state, displacing 70% of residents, but as the government offered compensation, the authorities left out many Christians, according to the bishop.
"In situations like this, Christian faithful have no place to run to except the church and their leaders. This sometimes mounts pressure on the church and her leaders as the resources at her disposal will not be enough to go round," he said.
In Burkina Faso, churches and Christians are enduring extremist violence linked to either the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara or al-Qaida in Islamic Mali.
According to Father Constantin Sere, the secretary general of OCADES, the Caritas' branch in Burkina Faso, both terror groups have remained mobile across the regions and have seized half of the country.
"When we observe the terrorist attacks, we feel that there are other people -- outside the country -- who are behind this phenomenon," Father Sere told OSV News.
"It is true that we have many sons of the country among the terrorists, but this is not an interreligious war," he said, stressing that "religions make the effort to maintain dialogue and pursue peaceful coexistence," while Islamists' violence threatens religious freedom in the country, with young people joining the terror groups to survive.
Over the past decade Burkina Faso has gone from one crisis to another. Since 2021, churches have been targeted and scores of worshippers killed. Over 300 civilians have been killed since May of this year including at least 26 Catholics. At present, six of the 15 Catholic dioceses in the country are heavily affected by violence.
The Aid to the Church in Need pontifical charity said Nov. 26 it was stepping-up emergency aid in Burkina Faso to help the people survive the extremists' violence, which killed 10,000 and displaced millions since 2015.
"We have children who witnessed their parents having their throats cut, women who saw their husbands murdered in cold blood and others who were raped by terrorists," Marco Mencaglia, director of programs at ACN, said in the statement.
Another Islamic State group-linked insurgency -- triggered in October 2017 in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province -- has killed 5,000 and displaced 1 million people, according to church sources.
Early this year, the violence surged, forcing priests, a religious sister and other church workers to flee. Initially, the Islamists targeted government structures, military installations, and towns and villages, but recently the group, known as al-Shabaab, has hit Christian targets and communities, executing Christians after separating them from Muslims.
Bishop António Juliasse Ferreira Sandramo of Pemba, Mozambique, said in August that fear and uncertainty about the future is "everywhere."
"There is still great suffering. Many people are still living in camps for the internally displaced, though with less humanitarian assistance nowadays," he said during an August visit to the region.
"Everywhere I went we celebrated Mass ... in the open, among the ruins of the churches which had been destroyed and vandalized," he said.
Local bishops are attempting to mediate the post-election disputes, which were triggered after the Oct. 9 elections. The bishops rejected the election results as "fraud," but urged the citizens to remain calm.
Meanwhile in Sudan, the war between Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Force militia has displaced church leaders, forcing bishops, priests and nuns to flee the capital, Khartoum. The violence has destroyed or left churches occupied and other places of worship since the start of the war in April 2023, with Bishop Yunan Tombe Trille Kuku Andali of El Obeid narrowly escaping execution Dec. 2. He has remained with the faithful amid a deadly war.
"We are deeply worried about the deteriorating social political situation in Sudan which is as a result of war … and continues with no chance of peace due to lack of dialogue," Sudan and South Sudan Catholic bishops' conference said in a statement on Nov. 21.
"The humanitarian consequences on the civilians" have gone "beyond toleration and must be condemned in the strongest terms possible," the bishops lamented.
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