Persecution of Non-Muslims (Ivory Coast)

Note that the persecution of apostates and the persecution of homosexuals are covered in separate pages

At least 1,000 Christians shot and hacked to death with machetes by Muslim troops at the Salesian St. Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue. Catholic priests are being targeted, Church facilities looted and destroyed

The conflict in Ivory Coast began in 2002. The country is divided between the Muslim north and Christian south. This is a conflict that has been brewing for years.

Early reports suggested that more than 800 people, largely from the Gbagbo-supporting Gueré tribe, were killed in a single day at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue, 300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border. The attackers seem to have been largely soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.

Late yesterday the Roman Catholic charity Caritas said more than 1000 people were massacred in Duekoue. A Caritas spokesman said Caritas workers visited the town and reported seeing a neighbourhood filled with bodies of people who had been shot and hacked to death with machetes.

The next Rwanda? ‘In all districts of Abidjan there is gunfire’
Herald Scotland, April 3, 2011

The Vatican's representative to the Ivory Coast has said Catholic priests have been targeted by armed groups during the current conflict, but added that he still hopes "full-scale civil war" can be avoided in the West African country.
. . .

[Archbishop Ambrose Madtha] said students at the main Catholic seminary in Abidjan, the country's largest city, had been evacuated after its buildings were occupied by rebel soldiers. He added that a Catholic priest had been abducted while helping supervise the evacuation, while another had been attacked while returning from a late-night radio broadcast and had been hospitalized. He would not identify the priests by name.

But in Rome March 31, Caritas said Father Kissi was kidnapped by an armed group while he was heading to Anyama, a suburb of Abidjan, to evacuate seminarians. Caritas said its officials in Ivory Coast had not heard from him, and investigations into his whereabouts had been unsuccessful.

Nuncio says priests targeted in Ivory Coast; Caritas priest missing
Jonathan Luxmoore, Catholic News Service, March 31, 2011

Caritas Internationalis, the consortium of Catholic relief and development agencies, has condemned the massacre of an estimated 1,000 people in Duékoué, a city in western Côte d'Ivoire.
. . .

The local bishop, Bishop Gaspard Béby Gnéba of Man, told the Fides news agency that Church facilities had been looted and destroyed.

Violence has afflicted the nation since President Laurent Gbagbo refused to recognize Alassane Ouattara’s victory in the November presidential election.

17% of the nation’s 20.8 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics.

Massacre in Ivory Coast; Church facilities destroyed
CatholicCulture, April 4, 2011

Two Christian brothers badly beaten, tortured, then nailed with steel spikes to cross-shaped planks by their hands and feet, on “the example of Christ”. Eldest brother dies from injuries

Two peasant brothers were brutally crucified on “the example of Christ” as forces loyal to Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara continue to target perceived supporters of his ousted Christian predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo.

Raphael Aka Kouame died of his injuries; incredibly his younger brother, Kouassi Privat Kacou, survived the ordeal. The pair were badly beaten and tortured before being crudely nailed to cross-shaped planks by their hands and feet with steel spikes on 29 May.

The brothers were falsely accused of hiding weapons in their home village of Binkro, which has been targeted by Ouattara supporters as the birthplace of a key enemy. They are looking for Prefect Koko Djei, President of the General Council of Oumé and an official in Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front party, who is accused of distributing weapons to young Oumé men. The brothers repeatedly denied any involvement in a weapons cache, but their pleas were ignored.

After crucifying the brothers, Ouattara’s men took them on an extensive search of Binkro, but they found only a store of medical equipment and supplies, which they looted. The seriously wounded pair were then taken to prison in Oumé, where Raphael died in the night.

This is just one of the many atrocities that have been committed as fighting between Ouattara and Gbagbo supporters has continued in the wake of the disputed presidential election last November. Christians have been caught up in the conflict as perceived supporters of Gbagbo. Support for the two men is split broadly along geographical and religious lines, with the predominantly Muslim north largely backing Ouattara, a Muslim from that region, while support for Gbagbo, a Christian, comes from the mainly Christian south.

Brothers crucified by Ouattara forces in Ivory Coast
Barnabas Aid, June 8, 2011

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