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| Oh Sorrowful Mother, standing at the foot of the Cross of thy Divine Son, pray for thy Somali children and all persecuted Christians! |
Your prayers are urgently requested for the Christian mother who was killed on September the 1st, as well as for her husband and son who are still alive but in hiding. Please pray too for the boy who has been kidnapped and for his family. Again, Al-Shabaab is suspected to be behind this fresh spate of persecution. The group has vowed to rid Somalia of all Christians and traces of Christianity. Please offer up Masses, Holy Communions, Rosaries and other prayers for these families, as well as for all the heavily persecuted Christians of Somalia. The following article is taken from Christianity Today, and can be read in full at the original site here.-RCMS
"Islamic extremists from the Al-Shabaab rebel group are suspected of killing a Christian woman in one town last week and kidnaping a 13-year-old boy from another, sources said.
According to a story by Morning Star News, the militants, who have vowed to rid Somalia of its underground church, are suspected of killing Fatuma Isak Elmi, 35, on Sept. 1 at about 7:30pm. inside her home in Beledweyne, Hiran Province in south-central Somalia.
Her husband had received a threatening note that morning believed to be from the Islamic extremist group and was away at the time of the murder.
Neighbors were alerted to the killing when they heard Elmi's 4-year-old son crying.
"The neighbors heard a child crying for quite some time," a source told Morning Star News. "After one hour, a close neighbor visited the house and found the child outside still crying." The neighbor, whose identity is withheld for security reasons, told the source that upon entering the house she found Elmi dead.
Elmi's husband, 36-year-old Mumin Omar Abdi, learned of her death when he arrived home at about 10pm. He said he had found a note early that morning that read, "We shall come for you. You are friends with our enemies (Westerners, assumed to be Christians), and you are polluting our religion."
Abdi has fled the area with his son to an undisclosed location, the source said.
Kidnapping:
In the southern Somali town of Qoryoley in the Lower Shebelle Region, two witnesses told Morning Star News they saw armed, masked men from Al-Shabaab kidnap a 13-year-old boy on Sept. 3 as he approached his home on his way back from school.
Mustaf Hassan was kidnapped near Marka District at about 4 p.m., the sources said. He had been staying with a Muslim relative there since last year, when his parents fled the area after they were suspected of being Christians, another source told Morning Star News.
Another source told Morning Star News that the boy's parents, Hassan Mohammed and Farhio Omar, were in great pain and grief upon learning of the kidnapping. "Our son might be killed, and we are also not safe," Mohammed said.
No ransom has been sought, and Christians suspected the rebels may have abducted Mustaf in an effort to find his parents or other Christians.
Mustaf is the nephew of Fartun Omar, shot to death by Al-Shabaab on April 13 in Buulodbarde, 12 miles from Beledweyne.
Morning Star News reported that Omar was the widow of Ahmed Ali Jimale, a 42-year-old father of four, who was killed on Feb. 18 as he stood outside his house in Alanley village on the outskirts of Kismayo..."
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church"- Tertullian
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