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Tanzania

A single week in February 2013 saw two church leaders killed in separate incidents in Tanzania. Pastor Evarist Mushi was shot dead on 17 February as he arrived to take a Sunday evening service at his church in Mtoni district, Urban West region, on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar. As the pastor arrived, he was blocked from entering the church by two young men. He was shot twice in the head and pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Tanzania_Inside Nyakimue church June 2008
The inside of a half-finished church building
in Tanzania. Barnabas Fund
has been helping with building costs

Six days earlier, a group of youths armed with machetes and sticks attacked a Christian butcher’s shop in Buseresere, in the Geita region of mainland Tanzania. Tensions were running high in the area; Muslims were demanding the closure of Christian owned butcheries. Pastor Mathayo Kachila was caught up in the ensuing violence and was beheaded at the scene. Several other Christians were assaulted, and five people were hospitalised.

Christians make up over 50% of the population of Tanzania, and the government safeguards religious freedom. The conditions in Zanzibar, however, are very different. With Muslims forming 98% of the island’s population, there is increasing pressure from Islamist groups to apply sharia law to all aspects of legislation and to Islamise the island.

Violent attacks by Islamists on Zanzibar are becoming more frequent as tensions heighten. The killing of Pastor Evarist followed the wounding of the Rev. Ambrose Mkenda, who was ambushed and shot in Tomondo on Christmas Day in 2012. Another way in which Muslim extremists on the island put pressure on Christians is by mob violence against churches. Several churches were destroyed during rioting on two occasions in 2012 by members of the separatist group UAMSHO (Association for Islamic Mobilisation and Propagation).

Mainland Tanzania is embroiled in an ongoing debate about whether to introduce sharia alongside the existing secular law. Christians from the Masaai people group may also face pressure from their communities to conform to traditional practices such as the circumcision of children.

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  • The Sudanese authorities have intensified their crackdown on Christian activities by targeting Christian-run schools. Two of these in the capital, Khartoum, have been ordered to close. One is a primary school that the authorities discovered was not teaching Islamic studies or separating boys and girls. The other provided English-language lessons for 500 adults; three of its staff had been arrested and interrogated over suspicions that they were evangelising Muslims. Pray that Christian work and witness in Sudan will continue despite the increasingly crippling restrictions being imposed upon them, and that the Gospel will spread there. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed 20 hours ago

  • An upsurge of arrests and deportations of Christians in Sudan has further unsettled the country’s vulnerable Christian minority. In January three Christians of South Sudanese origin were detained and then ordered to leave the country because of their involvement with churches and a Christian radio station. The following month a group of at least 55 Christians were detained without charge, falsely accused of receiving money from foreign countries. Dozens of expatriate Christians have also been deported. Pray that this frequent and severe harassment will stop, and that the churches of Sudan will be allowed to worship and serve the Lord in peace. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Sat, May 2013 00:00

  • “We have reached here with the help of God. We shall live well with God’s help in our land.” A Christian woman gave thanks as she arrived in South Sudan after escaping from discrimination and oppression in Muslim-majority Sudan, thanks to the Exodus project sponsored by Barnabas Fund. Give thanks to the Lord that more than 3,500 Christians have already reached the safety of the Christian-majority South by plane and bus. Pray for His blessing upon them as they settle into their new lives, and pray too that others will be able to join them soon. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Fri, May 2013 00:00

  • Pray for 14 Christians in Nghe An, Vietnam, who were sentenced in January to between three and 13 years in prison on charges of subversion against the state. Their lawyers complained that the Christians had been subjected to torture, including sleep deprivation, and coerced into confessing crimes that they had not committed. Some of them had apparently been detained by police at random, some at a church service. During the two-day trial, thousands of Christians staged a protest against the arbitrary and illegal arrest of innocent people. Pray that the sentences will be revoked and the Christians released, and that the authorities will stop harassing and bullying the Christian community. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Thu, May 2013 00:00

  • “The decree is intended to provide the tools to end the house-church movement entirely.” Nguyen Van Dai, a Christian lawyer in Vietnam, added his voice to a chorus of concern among church leaders about Decree 92, which provides new guidelines for regulating religious practice in the country. The decree imposes harsh and complex new criteria that churches must fulfil if they are to obtain legal status; these will make it almost impossible for unregistered groups such as house churches (which have not been recognised by the government since 1975) to do so. Even if a congregation manages to fulfil all the conditions, the minimum period it will have to wait for recognition is 23 years. Pray that the churches in Vietnam will withstand this attempt to stifle their witness and will not only survive but thrive. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Wed, May 2013 00:00

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