Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya (Compass Direct News) – Islamic extremists shot the leader of an underground church to death outside the capital city of Somalia this month and have threatened to kill his wife, his tearful widow told Compass.

Having learned that he had left Islam to become a Christian, Somali militants from the Islamic extremist al Shabaab murdered 41-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Ali at about noon on Jan. 1, Amina Ibrahim Hassan said.

He was killed sometime after leaving his home in Hodan, on the outskirts of Mogadishu, she said. She and other family members were not immediately aware that he had been killed. more >>

Somali Islamic extremists beheaded four Christians recently after kidnapping them last month, according to eyewitness accounts reported to International Christian Concern (ICC).

Members of the Islamic extremist organization Al-Shabaab had kidnapped Fatima Sultan, Ali Ma'ow, Sheik Mohammed Abdi, and Maaddey Diil on July 27 from their coastal town of Merca, 56 miles from Mogadishu, and eventually beheaded the Christians after they refused to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ.

The four Christians had been working for a local NGO that helps orphans in southern Somalia. more >>

Muslim extremists early Monday morning killed a Christian convert in Mahadday Weyne, Somalia, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Mogadishu.

Al Shabaab Islamist rebels shot Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman to death at 7 a.m., eyewitnesses told Compass. They said the Islamic extremists appeared to have been hunting the convert from Islam, and when they found him they did not hesitate to shoot him.

The sources told Compass that Abdiraman was the leader of an underground “cell group” of Christians in Somalia. more >>

While media attention on Somalia has ebbed, a ministry working with the persecuted church continues to encourage prayer for the tiny Christian community there that suffers from social chaos, tribal conflict, and religiously motivated violence.

Jerry Dykstra, media relations coordinator at Open Doors USA, calls Somalia a “tough, tough place to be a Christian.”

“There’s so much danger there and there is not an established government there,” he told The Christian Post last week. more >>