Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Oct 16, 2020 / 11:01 pm (CNA).- Religious leaders in Ivory Coast have appealed for dialogue and peace ahead of the presidential election, scheduled for Oct. 31 amid persistent tensions.
President Alassane Ouattara is seeking a third term, and tens of thousands of Ivorians have protested the move. More than a dozen people have been killed in the protests in recent weeks.
There are also fears whether the election will be just, after 40 out of 44 candidates were rejected by the Constitutional Council.
Ouattara was installed as Ivorian president in 2011 as the conclusion to a civil war that followed a disputed election. Many supporters of the previous president have been imprisoned or exiled.
At an interreligious prayer event held in Abidjan Oct. 14, the Alliance of Religions for Peace in Ivory Coast called on political officials to engage in dialogue for a peaceful election.
Bishop Alexis Touably Youlo of the Diocese of Agboville, speaking at the event, urged the Ivorian government to release those imprisoned “following the recent demonstrations in connection with the presidential election,” adding that the “government should further promote the return of those in exile to Ivory Coast.”
Bishop Youlo urged members of political parties to “ban all forms of violence in the conquest of power,” inviting the entire Ivorian population “to avoid all forms of violence and show restraint during this election period.”
Noël Nguessan, the pastor of an ecclesial community in the country and spokesman of the ARPI, said that “religious leaders in Ivory Coast encourage the political actors to resume dialogue among themselves and we are willing to accompany them in this inter-Ivorian dialogue for peace.”
He added, “We encourage all initiatives that are part of peace; everything must be done to maintain peace. Thanks therefore to all the partners and high-level friends of the Ivory Coast for their efforts in favor of the stability of our country.”
“The religious leaders urge political parties to refrain from making reference to religious denominations in their campaign speeches because the majority of activists and supporters of political parties are of different religious backgrounds,” Nguessan reflected.
Mamadou Traoré, president of the Higher Council of Imams, Mosques and Islamic Affairs in Ivory Coast, implored God’s intervention for members of political parties “to renew dialogue, true reconciliation and constructive collaboration in order to preserve peace, harmony and social cohesion.”
Members of APRI issued a statement Oct. 13 outlining their actions for peace and reconciliation in the country.
The religious leaders say that they have scheduled “targeted individual meetings with the government, political actors, civil society, and media regulatory bodies.”
“We reiterate our attachment to peace in Ivory Coast and renew our gratitude to all the people of goodwill who are working to maintain stability and peace in our country,” the religious leaders added.
The members of APRI called on “all the citizens and inhabitants of this beautiful country to prayer and repentance.”
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Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin receives Cardinal Pietro Parolin upon the cardinal’s arrival in Juba, South Sudan, Aug. 14, 2023. / Credit: Sudan/South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference
Catholic Archbishop Matthew Ishaya Audu of Jos marches alongside evangelical leader Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam in front of the Plateau state governor’s office building in Jos, Nigeria, Jan. 8, 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, photo by Plateau State Government Media Team.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 9, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
Thousands of Christians rallied yesterday in front of the governor’s office in Nigeria’s Plateau state to demand action after more than 200 were killed in a series of Christmas massacres.
The attacks, which targeted Christian villages beginning Dec. 23 and continuing through Christmas day, left Christian communities in Nigeria’s Plateau state reeling. Photos obtained by CNA after the attack showed villagers burying their slain relatives and loved ones in mass graves.
According to Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, an evangelical leader who helped to organize the rally, the attacks also left 15,000 people displaced without homes.
Among the demands being made by the protestors, Para-Mallam said that they asked for an “urgent humanitarian relief material response by the state and federal government” and for the arrest of the perpetrators of the Christmas massacre, which he called a “genocidal,” “terrorist” attack.
Thousands of Christians peacefully and prayerfully march to a rally in front of the Nigerian Plateau state governor’s office building in protest of the 2023 Christmas massacre that left over 200 Christian Nigerians dead, Jan. 8, 2024. Credit: Photo courtesy of Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, photo by Plateau State Government Media Team.
The attack marks the latest instance of terrorists targeting Christian Nigerians on significant Christian feast days. In 2022, on Pentecost Sunday, 39 Catholic worshippers were killed at the St. Francis Xavier Owo Catholic Parish in Ondo Diocese.
Religious freedom advocates believe that militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen were responsible for the Christmas attacks. In Nigeria as a whole, at least 60,000 Christians have been killed in the past two decades. An estimated 3,462 Christians were killed in Nigeria in the first 200 days of 2021, or 17 per day, according to a new study.
Due to continued attacks, Nigeria is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a Christian, according to a 2023 report by the advocacy group International Christian Concern.
Para-Mallam told CNA that Nigeria’s middle belt region, of which Plateau state is a part, has “suffered sustained attacks for over a decade now with destruction of lives and properties.”
The thousands of protestors at the rally, he said, were “mournful, angry, but surprisingly joyful.”
Their “central objective,” he explained, was “to ask for an end to the killings not just in Plateau but Nigeria and seek justice for the people.”
Just-In: CAN Plateau State Chapter is having a Peaceful Walk to Government House pic.twitter.com/YbFRqtFI9J
“Above all, it was very peaceful and prayerful,” he added. “The old, the young all together felt that we had to do what we had to do to get our message across.”
According to Para-Mallam, the crowd numbered about 5,000 and included both Catholics and Protestants. Together, he said, they peacefully and prayerfully marched, ending in front of the governor’s office building in the city of Jos. Archbishop Matthew Ishaya Audu of Jos and several Catholic priests also took part in the march and rally, according to Para-Mallam.
The demonstration was “mournful, angry, and surprisingly joyful,” according to Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam. Credit: Photos by Nigerian multimedia journalist Jœy Shèkwônúzhïbó, used with permission.
The rally was organized with the help of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), a coalition of Nigerian Christian Churches and groups that includes the Catholic Church in Nigeria.
Para-Mallam said the purpose of the demonstration was to “mourn in solidarity” with the devastated communities as well as to show them that the Church “cares” and “identify with them in the moment of suffering and mourning.”
A secondary purpose for the rally, Para-Mallam said, was to “get the Church on the Plateau to unite and to speak with one voice around the issues of social justice” and to “create awareness nationally and globally about the Christmas season attack.”
Para-Mallam said that Plateau’s governor, Caleb Mutfwang, addressed the crowds at the rally and was “sympathetic and understanding and spoke well on the pains of his people.”
Mutfwang condemned the attacks shortly after they occurred in a Dec. 26 statement in which he said: “This has indeed been a gory Christmas for us.”
“He promised to relay our concerns to the president and committed to work with the president to end the killings in the Plateau state,” Para-Mallam said.
Despite the governor and president voicing their support for the impacted communities, several religious freedom advocates have been critical of the lack of government response to the growing terrorist attacks.
Maria Lozano, a representative for the papal relief group Aid to the Church in Need, told CNA after the attacks that tangible government support was largely absent after the Christmas massacre and that a “lack of response from the government” over the years has worsened the situation in the region. The absence of government support, Lozano said, has forced Christian churches to take on the “primary responsibility of providing assistance.”
Para-Mallam asked for Christians outside of Nigeria to help by offering prayer, advocacy, and humanitarian intervention.
“We also want fellow believers to encourage policymakers to encourage the Nigerian government to do more to end the killings in general and particularly those targeted at Christians,” he said.
For several years now, religious freedom advocates have criticized the U.S. government for failing to include Nigeria in the State Department’s “Countries of Particular Concern” list, which some consider to be America’s most effective tool to encourage foreign governments to address the persecutions in their countries.
“There is no justification as to why the State Department did not designate Nigeria or India as a Country of Particular Concern,” said U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chair Abraham Cooper and vice chair Frederick Davie in a Jan. 4 statement.
Cooper and Davie mentioned the Christmas massacre as “just the latest example of deadly violence against religious communities in Nigeria.”
Speaking on “EWTN News Nightly” on Monday, Davie said that the decision to leave Nigeria off the list was “particularly” concerning and a “huge mistake.”
Davie told EWTN that “there are some who are saying that the government [of Nigeria] if it is not actively participating in some of this religious persecution is actually standing by and not doing what it can to prevent it.”
“We just believe,” Davie explained, “that by designating Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, the United States puts itself in a position to work more closely with the government of Nigeria to address some of those fundamental security issues that are going unattended to.”
Despite this, the State Department has left Nigeria off the Countries of Particular Concern list since 2021.
Formerly detained Father Oliver Opara (left) with Ummi Hassan; Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Diocese of Sokoto (not an abductee); Father Stephen Ojapah; and Hassan Fareed Hassan after the four were released from being held captive by terrorists. /… […]
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