ICC Note: Easter Sunday marked a time of mourning in Garissa, Kenya, the place where Islamist attackers from extremist group al-Shabaab massacred 148 people, mostly Christians, at Garissa University College on Thursday April 2. Meanwhile, the Kenyan military bombed al-Shabaab camps in the Gedo region of Somalia. The militants use these locations as staging points for incursions into Kenya from across the border. The group promises more attacks on Christians.
By Stoyan Zaimov
4/6/15 Garissa, Kenya (Christian Post) – Kenyan Christian leaders mourned and offered prayers on Easter Sunday for the 148 people, mostly Christian students, slaughtered last week at Garissa University College. The Kenyan government has meanwhile responded by bombing bases belonging to terror group al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We join the sufferings of the relatives and the victims with the sufferings of Jesus,” said Bishop Joseph Alessandro of Our Lady of Consolation Church. “The victims will rise again with Christ.”
The Associated Press reported that several hundred Christians marked Easter at the Catholic church in Garissa, and many more around the country and across the world remembered the students during the religious holiday.
Both Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion respectively, mentioned the slaughtered Christians in their Easter messages.
Welby said: “There have been so many martyrs in the last year. On Maundy Thursday, three days ago, around 150 Kenyans were killed because of being Christian. They are witnesses, unwilling, unjustly, wickedly, and they are martyrs in both senses of the word.
“These martyrs too are caught up in the resurrection: their cruel deaths, the brutality of their persecution, their persecution is overcome by Christ himself at their side because they share his suffering, at their side because he rose from the dead,” he added.
Francis, in his third Easter address since becoming pope, prayed for a peaceful resolution to conflicts around the world, but also focused part of his speech on the events in Kenya:
“May constant prayer rise up from all people of goodwill for those who lost their lives – I think in particular of the young people who were killed last Thursday at Garissa University College in Kenya – for all who have been kidnapped, and for those forced to abandon their homes and their dear ones,” Francis said.
…
