January 15 - Pray for: Africa

Central Africa, where ethnic and international conflicts have brutalized the populations. Tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples in Rwanda and Burundi led to civil wars and periodic genocidal massacres over the past five decades. The Rwanda genocide of 1994 triggered a chain reaction of war and waves of refugees, affecting surrounding countries. The Second Congo War of 1998-2003 embroiled DRC, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Chad, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi in a confused and bloody conflict that involved irregular militia groups as much as national armed forces - and had no real decisive winners, only losers. Eastern Congo in particular has been devastated, and the simmering of disgruntled militias and ethnicities poses a continued threat there. For years, the heterodox and occultic Lord's Resistance Army also plagued the population of Uganda as well as southern Sudan and northeast DRC with raids, murder, mutilation, abduction and enslavement. Sustained conflict in South Sudan, and the violence of the séléka and anti-balaka movements in Central African Republic round out a litany of tragedies in our generation. Pray for righteous leaders - locally, nationally and internationally - who will act with justice and decisiveness to prevent war and conflict. Pray also that the lives of those devastated by loss and destruction might be rebuilt from the ashes.

East Africa remains a place of instability and regional violence, despite the 2018 peace treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which itself came as an answer to prayer.

• Somalia's descent into anarchy plumbed new depths. A combination of deep poverty, lack of resources, famine, historical colonial influences and the deeply clan-based societal structure creates a dangerous cocktail. This situation allowed foreign fishing fleets to plunder the fish stocks off the Somali coast, which in turn generated an armed response by Somalis and the flourishing of piracy. International naval presence greatly reduced piracy. On land, Islamist radicals were pushed out of major strongholds and mostly operate in remote areas and in low profile terror cells.
• Kenya, meant to be a lynchpin of regional stability, has suffered unexpected violence and strife in the past generation. Ethnic/tribal rivalries fuel and are fuelled by political wrangling, and corruption in the corridors of power does nothing to bring solutions. When peace holds, it is too frequently punctuated by murderous terrorist attacks emanating from Islamist groups with ties to Somalia’s al-Shabab.

Sudan's civil strife has been the norm for decades. It became somewhat of an international pariah due to the persistent violence and oppression endorsed by the regime. The former president has been convicted of corruption and money laundering, and faces international criminal charges of war crimes and genocide. But now, Sudan's prospects are threatened by its own military, which faces widespread censure for its handling of the protests and coups of 2018-2022. In 2023, rival military factions plunged Sudan into civil war, where the main loser is the Sudanese people who had thought that civilian government would lead them to a brighter future.

• The north-south tensions plunged the country into outright civil war for the majority of Sudan’s existence as an independent nation. These are intensified by the racial and religious divide between north and south, the Arabization agenda of the regime, with its Islamic jihad overtones, as well as the oil wealth in the south. South Sudan achieved independence in 2011, but descended into civil conflict only a few years later, and seems unable to climb out. Pray for peace in this troubled region.
• Darfur, despite being overwhelmingly Muslim in composition, was for years subject to horrific oppression by the government-sponsored Janjawid militia. These troubles in turn spilled into Chad and, to a lesser degree, Central African Republic, affecting millions in both countries. Civil war in Sudan has brought back the spectre of genocide as one of the two factions involved basically was born out of the Janjawid.