ICC Note: A community of 30 elderly Christians living in Mogadishu are fearful that their Islamic grandchildren are going to inflict harm on them for their faith in Jesus. People born in the 90’s are becoming more and more intolerant of their older family members that profess Christianity. The Islamic group Al-Shabaab is trying to rid the country from any form of Christianity, as well as neighboring countries like Kenya.

05/06/2018 Somalia (World Watch Monitor) – A small community of 30 elderly Christians live in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in constant fear of militant Islamists and even their relatives, according to Catholic news agency Fides.

“Violence is in [our] homes and we, who are few, we risk our lives every day,” one man, speaking under the pseudonym of Moses, told an Italian priest he recently met.

“Those born in the 90s have become intolerant and do not understand their elders who profess Christianity. Therefore the elders flee, go away from their children and grandchildren,” Moses told the priest, adding that some Christians “were killed by their children’s children”.

“I had the opportunity to meet Moses,” Father Tollu told Fides. “He is a Christian who grew up in the reality of the Italian Protectorate and then in independent Somalia, still very tied to our country. Many consider him the spokesman of the Somali Catholics. He defines his community as endangered.”

Father Tollu told Fides that it was too dangerous to work overtly as a Christian priest because of the security situation and threats posed by the Islamic State group and Al-Shabaab.

Last month World Watch Monitor reported that IS has become active in Somalia and that former Al-Shabaab members have joined.

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