09/21/2020 Kenya (International Christian Concern) – Seven years ago, masked gunmen attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. During the attack, the gunmen, later known to be a part of al-Shabaab, killed more than 70 people. This attack is one of the largest terrorist attacks on Kenyan soil in the past century. The other major attack, the Garissa University attack, were both conducted by the same terrorist group, Somalia based al-Shabaab.
Al-Shabaab is a violent Islamic extremist organization. They have been operating out of Somalia since they were part of the Islamic Courts Union previous to 2006. Then in 2012, they pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. Since that time, they have held large parts of the Somali countryside, including much of the rural land surrounding Mogadishu, the country’s capital. They have been conducting many attacks on Kenya soil each year since Kenya joined the African Union Mission in Somalia(AMISOM), a coalition of African forces trying to end al-Shabaab’s regime.
These attacks often target Christians and are very brutal. Hundreds of people have been killed by al-Shabaab over the past decade in Kenya, many of them executed only because they are Christians. Al-Shabaab believes that if they kill enough Christians in Kenya, then the Kenyan government will stop supporting AMISOM. This has not proved true however. Please pray for the safety of our Kenyan brothers and sisters who live close to the Somali border.
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