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Jihadists threaten Catholics in central Mali, demand conversion

Islamic militants have been harassing members of a sprawling Catholic parish in Mali, warning them to close their churches and "practice the Muslim religion from now on"

La Croix International

Bishop Jean Baptiste Tiama of the Catholic Diocese of Mopti in central Mali has urged his people to pray for parishioners in the village of Douna who have been facing several weeks of threats from Islamic jihadists. 

"On January 4, 2023, they returned to the same village to demand that two Christian communities close the churches," said a recent communique signed by the bishop's secretary, Father Daniel Togo. "Therefore, it is now forbidden to ring bells, play musical instruments and pray in the churches," the priest said.

Mali, an overwhelmingly Muslim country in West Africa, has been plagued by a spreading jihadist insurgency since 2012. It has also been plunged into a profound multidimensional, political, economic and humanitarian crisis. The center of the landlocked nation is one of the hotbeds of violence that has spread to the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso and Niger to the south.

Colonel Assimi Goïta, the junta leader who seized power in January 2021 after a second coup, launched an operation focused on central Mali in late 2021. He claims he’s forced the jihadists to flee and has put them on the defensive across the country. But the United Nations’ secretary-general sent a written report to the UN security council on Jan. 10 that says the situation continued to deteriorate from June to December 2022 in the central Sahel, "particularly in Burkina Faso and Mali".

"This time it is more than serious"

Father Léon Dougnon, the parish priest of Segue, one of six parishes in the diocese of Mopti, was kidnapped with four lay people on June 21, 2021. They were abducted on their way to the funeral of a priest in the neighboring diocese of San. They were eventually released on July 13 after three weeks in captivity. Following their abduction, hostages often pass into the hands of several armed jihadist groups, making it difficult to know exactly who is responsible for their capture.

According to corroborating sources, the kidnapping of Father Dougnon and his parishioners in 2021 could be linked to the refusal of the mostly Christian villagers of Segue to sign an agreement that the jihadists offered them. The jihadists went around the hamlets in this region and asked the inhabitants to sign a paper committing them to adopt the way of life advocated by these armed groups and to renounce forming self-defense groups - or to denounce them to the army — in exchange for peace.

"This time it is more than serious," said Bishop Tiama regarding the Catholics under threat in Douna. He’s urging the people of his diocese, which he has led since 2020, to persevere "in prayer in order to defeat the forces of evil". 

"What is even more disturbing is that they are asking Christians to practice the Muslim religion from now on," he said.

"Prayer is one of our weapons in the fight, so let's intensify prayers in churches, in families. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth," continued the 68-year-old bishop. "May the Lord help us to extinguish this fire of insecurity that has been burning for years," he pleaded.