March
4, 2014
Church leaders on the semi-autonomous island of
Zanzibar have called on the Tanzanian Government to do more to protect
Christians after recent bomb attacks.
Christians
are said to be ‘shaken and afraid’ after suspected Islamist extremists launched
attacks on churches in three different locations on the island last month.
In
the first attack, on February 23, a bomb exploded near the entrance to the
Evangelistic Assemblies of God Zanzibar (EAGZ) church in Kijito Upele-Fuoni,
outside Zanzibar city, just before the end of a Sunday service. Several people
suffered minor injuries.
The
following day, a device was detonated outside Christ Church Cathedral in Stone
Town. Previously, home-made bombs had been thrown at a Seventh-day Adventist
church in nearby Tomondo during a service on February 15 and again on the
following day.
One
separatist group, the Association for Islamic Mobilisation and Propagation, has
threatened Christians since 2012. Another is fighting for full autonomy for
Zanzibar from Tanzania. While Tanzania’s population is 54 per cent Christian,
the Zanzibar archipelago is more than 97 per cent Muslim.
(Sources:
Morning Star News, Operation
World)
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