ICC Note: Part of the devastation still looming after the January Charlie Hebdo riots in Niger is the marginalization, death threats, and silencing of gospel proclamation in the overwhelming majority-Muslim nation. A gospel media recording and distribution center was attacked and Muslim rioters destroyed almost all of its hard copy media while thankfully, its staff survived. Christians in Niger are still facing intimidation and intense persecution today, but in the midst of this unimaginable suffering, many of them are growing in their faith and boldly standing for Christ.
5/28/15 Niger (ANS) – As a result of the vicious Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris, France, Niger, a normally peaceful nation, erupted in violent protest in late January that led to 84 churches being burned down, and at least 10 people being killed.
In this former French colony, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Niamey’s grand mosque, shouting “God is Great” in Arabic.
During a demonstration in Niger’s second city, Zinder, protesters raided shops run by Christians and attacked the French cultural center. They also threw stones at police and burned tires outside Niamey’s grand mosque a day after at least four were killed in Zinder.
One group badly affected by the violence, was Global Recordings Network (GRN), also known as Gospel Recordings, but amazingly its in-country director and staff, survived the attack, but the distribution base was demolished and all of its equipment, including computers, cameras, CDs and cassettes duplicators, and picture books, were lost.
“While everything was destroyed, we want to start over again in spite of the danger,” said a spokesperson for GRN, whose US headquarters are based in Temecula, California. “Because of that, the 16 local languages with gospel recordings spoken by these Muslim groups in Niger are presently only available on the website www.globalrecordings.net, but the goal is to again have them available locally in Niger on Cassette, CD or DVD or micro SD cards that a cell (mobile) phones can play.”
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