Saturday, October 27, 2012

Christians Fleeing Persecution in Mali

10/27/2012 Mali (VaticanToday) - "In the north of Mali, all Christians were forced to flee" a complaint expressed in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Fr. Laurent Balas, a missionary of the White Fathers, who spent six years in Gao in northern Mali before being appointed pastor of the Church of the Holy Martyrs of Uganda in Bamako.

"My Gao successors were forced to flee," said Fr. Balas describing the conquest of the north of the Country in the spring of this year on behalf of the Islamic militias.

Christians fleeing from the north are welcomed by the families in the south under very precarious conditions, after having left all their belongings. "There are no refugee camps in the Country, but there are in neighboring Countries. The displaced have been 'absorbed' by the people. It is very difficult to say how many there are, " says the missionary.

In the north Islamist groups have imposed their radical interpretation of the Sharia even reaching the point of breaking into homes in search of unveiled women. In this case the unfortunate’s ear is cut off.
"Faced with this situation, the Muslims themselves are fleeing en masse, except that now, in the south, these families who flee put extra weight on other families who are already devasted(Source).

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