Underground Christians in Somalia are struggling to recover from the loss of a prominent church leader gunned down in March of this year.
As in many cases of the mounting number of murders of secret Christians in Somalia, Islamic extremists with the Al Shabaab rebel group were suspected in the March 16 shooting of Abdishakur Yusuf on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu. A leader of five underground groups in a country where leaving Islam is punishable by death, Yusuf’s prominence made publication of his death at the time too raw for the many who knew him, but they have granted permission now as they seek the prayers of brethren worldwide.
Al-Qu’eda affiliated
Al Shabaab, an al-Qu’eda-affiliated force that has lost south and central territory to Somali government and Kenyan military forces the past two years, has members residing both clandestinely and openly in Somalia, including Mogadishu, sources said. Al Shabaab members constantly monitor movements of those they suspect of being Christians, they said.
Yusuf leaves a widow and three children, ages 11, 8 and 5; they have been relocated.
‘He was shot in the head multiple times, so that his face is barely recognisable’, a source said. ‘We appeal to our brothers and sister to help the young family of our brother who is now with the Lord in a place where there is no more pain. We had to hold a series of counselling and consolation meetings for our believers’.
A steady number of Christians have been killed in the past few years in Sudan:
In the port town of Barawa in the Lower Shebelle Region, Islamic extremists from Al Shabaab on March 4 publicly beheaded a mother of two girls and her cousin after discovering they were Christians, sources said. The extremists called residents to the town centre to witness the executions of 41-year-old Sadia Ali Omar and her 35-year-old cousin, Osman Mohamoud Moge, the sources said. Several sources independently confirmed the slayings. Omar’s daughters, ages 8 and 15, were witness to the slaughter, sources said.
In Mogadishu last October, gunmen who said they intended to kill a Christian for spreading his faith, shot him to death, according to an area resident. Two men armed with pistols shot Abdikhani Hassan seven times as he approached his home after closing his pharmacy in Dharkenley District. Hassan was survived by a wife who was pregnant and five children ranging in age from three to 12.
Threatening note
Al Shabaab was suspected of killing Fatuma Isak Elmi, 35, in September inside her home in Beledweyne, Hiran Province, in south-central Somalia. Her husband had received a threatening note that morning believed to be from the Islamic extremist group and was away at the time of the murder.
In April, Al Shabaab militants shot Fartun Omar to death in Buulodbarde, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Beledweyne. Omar was the widow of Mursal Isse Siad, killed for his faith in December 2012 in Beledweyne, 332 kilometres (206 miles) north of Mogadishu. He had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam.
Siad and his wife, who converted to Christianity in 2000, had moved to Beledweyne from Doolow eight months before. The area was under government control and there was no indication that the killers belonged to the Al Shabaab rebels, but the Islamic extremist insurgents were present in Buulodbarde, and Christians believed a few Al Shabaab rebels could have been hiding in Beledweyne.
In February 2013, suspected Islamic extremists shot Ahmed Ali Jimale, a 42-year-old father of four, on the outskirts of the coastal city of Kismayo.
