Ivory Coast: Stories of slaughter of Catholics by Muslim troops

I found this via Gateway Pundit:

Bumped: MUSLIM TROOPS SLAUGHTER 1,000 CATHOLICS IN IVORY COAST
Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, April 3, 2011, 10:22 PM

(UPDATED & BUMPED)
At least 1,000 Christians were slaughtered this week in at the Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekou, Ivory Coast by Muslim troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara. The state-run media has been slow to report the facts.

[…]

UPDATE: The Muslim troops slaughtered several hundred Catholics at at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekou.
Herald Scotland reported:

A massacre in a Roman Catholic mission compound in the heart of the Ivory Coast’s cocoa-producing region could come to be seen as a crucial moment in the West African state’s escalating civil war.

Reports are mounting of atrocities by both sides in the conflict ? those loyal to head of state Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in his presidential residence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, and those who follow northern leader and president-elect Allasane Ouattara.

Events at the Italian Salesian Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue increasingly echo a notorious church massacre during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Early reports suggested that more than 800 people, largely from the Gbagbo-supporting Gueré tribe, were killed in a single day at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue, 300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border. The attackers seem to have been largely soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.

Late yesterday the Roman Catholic charity Caritas said more than 1000 people were massacred in Duekoue. A Caritas spokesman said Caritas workers visited the town and reported seeing a neighbourhood filled with bodies of people who had been shot and hacked to death with machetes.

More at Libertarian Republican.

I hope there is more reporting about Ivory Coast and what is going on there.

Do any of you readers have links to solid reports?

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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19 Comments

  1. chonak says:

    I wonder why the mainstream press (e.g., the BBC) hasn’t reported the religious angle of this: they’ve just presented it as Gbagbo (the incumbent) vs. Ouattara (the challenger who won the election, according to the UN). Nice and simple. Now it’s not so nice.

  2. YoungCatholic says:

    May Our Lady of the Rosary destroy the dangerous and evil devil that is islam! Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

  3. CatholicForLife says:

    Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus PRAY for us! Good LORD Jesus Christ have mercy on us all.

  4. MarkJ says:

    Like the Psalmist said, “for all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens”. The Muslims do not worship the same God that we do, that is made very clear by atrocities like this. May these new Martyrs of the Faith intercede for us and for the conversion of all Muslims to the True Faith.

  5. RichardT says:

    Interesting – this was the lead story on the BBC news last night, but not a single mention (at least on Radio 4, the main news radio station) of the religious aspect. It was not even mentioned that this took place in a mission compound. It was presented as a purely religious conflict.

    Yet this could not be ignorance, since they had commentary from a reporter on the ground.

  6. Kerry says:

    One almost does not know what to say. Is islam all tares, and no wheat?

  7. Gail F says:

    I saw this story several places, no mention of religion at all. “Just” (although that word hardly suffices) a massacre, as if it were a random massacre of whoever happened to be present.

    The last few weeks I have been upset at mass during the petitions, which are written by volunteers. They are all abstract — “for our political leaders, that they might work toward peace,” yadda yadda yadda. Meanwhile people are being slaughtered all over the place and Japan is a mess. What happened to praying for actual people?? Anyway, despite the active and vocal presence of many earnest (I do not mean that ironically) “peace and justice” folks in our parish, it all seems to me lately nothing but self-satisfied, fat and happy words about nothing. I have made all the financial contributions I can; I can’t physically help anyone in the Ivory Coast. I can and do pray, but wouldn’t it be better if we were all praying together at mass?? What happened to solidarity? Does any of what we believe mean anything real to anyone?

  8. Henry Edwards says:

    It’s a good thing they didn’t burn a Bible, or there would have been world-wide outrage. Right?

  9. Hieronymus says:

    The anti-religious of both the left and right has found the most effective means of dealing with the Church — act like it doesn’t exist. They are simply ignoring it, and since most people get their news from the major outlets, religion becomes increasingly irrelevant. Unless, of course, there is a sexual scandal. Then there is no doubt about the religious conviction of the offenders.

  10. Brooklyn says:

    This is the first place I’ve seen this story mention that it was about Muslim against Catholics. I can only imagine the outrage of the MSM if it had been Christian on Muslim, but of course, this gets no play whatsoever. No where else is the religious angle of this mentioned. Can we please get past the lie that Islam is a religion of peace? A couple of weeks ago we had a bishop preach at our church, and he talked about being in Iraq, and he did mention the persecution of Christians there. Yet, he talked about Christians witnessing to their Muslim “friends.” I could understand using the word “neighbor” maybe, but I don’t think “friends” chop your head off.

  11. disco says:

    The Boston Globe printed an editorial today decrying prejudice toward Muslims. Nothing about them massacring Christians though. Anti-Catholic rag.

  12. rakesvines says:

    Re: “Do any of you readers have links to solid reports?”
    There is a link from your source, GP, to Caritas which is a reputable source – if that is what you mean by solid. The MSM does not find the death of 1000 civilian CATHOLICS to be news worthy nor does this administration find the need to defend those civilians either. I have reposted the same at my blog last night. Atlas Shrugs reports it too. Shame on Obama for not stepping up to this. I think it just shows that Libya was about oil and not an immanent bloodbath. The bloodbath in the Ivory Coast is past immanent yet there is not even a humanitarian mission to defend the other 30,000 seeking sanctuary in the Church. I am so enraged. SHAME on Obama & the MSM. SHAME!!!

  13. ejcmartin says:

    Unfortunately if the MSM does report it as such it will probably be in the context of the Dawkinesque vein that religion causes evil Muslims and Christians killing each other again.

  14. irishgirl says:

    I did hear something on the “World Services’ edition of the BBC last week about a Catholic mission in the Ivory Coast that was sheltering a large number of refugees. The report didn’t give the name of the mission-it may have been this one.
    This is the first I’ve heard that it’s a Catholic vs. Moslem war.
    It’s awful nonetheless! And the regular MSM says not a thing about it!
    ‘Religion of peace’, my foot!
    Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, pray for us! May these new Catholic martyrs intercede for their country!

  15. spock says:

    What a tragedy. I hope the news will accurately report this. Not holding my breath on that.
    I will request that a Mass be said for them.

  16. Geremia says:

    I wonder if the U.S. attack on Libya indirectly triggered this massacre.

    This is a very good compilation of various reports: http://redwhitebluenews.com/?p=17777

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