International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that suspected al-Shabaab militants have massacred more than 48 civilians, mostly men, in a coastal Kenyan town. In an hours-long raid that primarily targeted patrons watching a World Cup match in a local video hall, more than 50 armed men
set seven buildings ablaze, indiscriminately shot innocent civilians, and murdered other men when it was discovered, after their interrogation, they were not Muslim.
Some of the armed men then reportedly descended on the local video hall, where many sat watching a World Cup match. Once inside, the militants separated the men and women. According to the Associated Press, the armed men then began to individually question the assembled group of men about their religious faiths, asking some to recite Islamic passages and others to speak in Somali. When they failed to do so, the men were murdered as the women present were forced to look on.
An eye witness from the attack, whose husband was murdered for his Christian faith, recounts the religiously-motivated execution: "They came to our house at around 8 p.m. and asked us in Swahili whether we were Muslims," Anne Gathigi told the AP. "My husband told them we were Christians and they shot him in the head and chest."
An ICC source in Kenya said, "There's a good number of churches there." The source continued, speculating "[Mpeketoni] could have been a target for [al-Shabaab] because there's a strong presence of churches in that place....you don't find those churches anywhere else in the whole region except in that one specific place."
ICC's source also explained the Kenyan state had deployed surveillance aircraft and helicopters to find and bring to justice the perpetrators of the attacks. Though, the direction in which the attackers fled the scene after law enforcement personnel began to push back against the insurgents remains unclear.
Al-Shabaab, a radical Islamic terrorist network, has committed a number of egregious attacks against Christians and other non-Muslims. In Somalia, for example, al-Shabaab conducted a years-long campaign in which it essentially eradicated the nation's Christian leadership. In addition to yesterday's massacre, al-Shabaab militants have beheaded a mother of two and publicly executed another woman living with her parents in Somalia for their Christians faiths this year alone. Last night's attack was the most deadly by al-Shabaab since it killed 67 in a siege of the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, after which it was also reported that some killed were targeted for their Christian faith.
ICC's Regional Manager for Africa, Cameron Thomas, said, "Last night's attack in Mpeketoni once again highlights al-Shabaab's targeted violence towards non-Muslims in the Horn of Africa. Forcing wives, mothers, sisters and daughters to watch their loved ones' execution for their Christian faith or inability to recite Islamic scripture or speak the Somali language is horrifying. The al-Shabaab struggle, a religious war to forcibly establish a purely Islamic society and culture in the Horn of Africa, has resulted in Christians being slaughtered in the privacy of their own homes for their faith. It's lead to the beheading of mothers, the public execution of daughters and a culture of fear throughout churches in Kenya, a predominantly Christian nation. Something can and must be done to provide the necessary security and peace of mind to East African Christians, whether in Kenya, Somalia, or beyond."
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