January saw the world’s attention focused on France, when there was almost universal condemnation of the brutal killing of 17 innocent people.
A number of the world’s leaders flew to Paris to join arms and walk through the streets as an affirmation of unity and liberty. And yet in West Africa a new tragedy on a far greater scale is unfolding, to which little or no attention has been paid.
Islamic anti-Christian rioting erupted in Niger’s second largest city, Zinder, on 16 January, spreading quickly to the capital, Niamey. It continued into the next day as Muslims protested the depiction of Muhammad in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Numerous Christian homes, schools and colleges were burnt, as was the SIM compound in Gourd, the Good Samaritan Orphanage run by the Assemblies of God and upward of 70 churches. The bodies of at least five Christians were later found in various burnt-out churches. Though the population is 97% Muslim and 0.33% Christian, Niger is officially a secular state with religious freedom. Niger was unranked on Open Doors’ 2015 World Watch List. However, fundamentalist Islam is growing.
