Christians forced to flee northern Mali

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Christians in Mali are in a “desperate plight” following last month’s military coup, Barnabas Fund has warned.

Government forces collapsed in the north following the coup, allowing separatist and Islamist rebels to seize control of the country’s three northern regions.

Around 215,000 people have been displaced from their homes, many of them crossing into Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

Many Christians have sought safety in Mali’s capital, Bamako, where they are being fed and sheltered by a network of churches.

A Barnabus Fund contact in Mali reports that churches in the towns of Gao and Timbuktu were destroyed in the takeover, with the congregations abandoning their homes and fleeing south. the rest