Amid a brutal political conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, armed troops attacked the holy city of Axum, a city of major significance for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. Close by, fighters also shelled and looted the al Nejashi Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in the world believed to have been built during the time of the Prophet Muhammad by the first Muslims to migrate to Africa.
Incidents such as these attacks are not uncommon in African countries experiencing political conflict and civil war. Assaults against houses of worship, religious leaders, and objects of spiritual significance are common in many armed conflicts in Africa, even when those conflicts are not fought because of religious differences and where religious actors are not combatants.
In February, post-election political violence in the Central African Republic left at least 14 dead when an armed group opened fire on a mosque in pursuit of members of an opposing militia. This is not the first time armed groups in the CAR have targeted places of religious significance. In 2017, fighters attacked the Djimbi Mosque in the country’s southwest, killing 20 worshipers, and in 2018, armed combatants attacked the Notre Dame of Fatima, a Roman Catholic church in the country’s capital, killing 16 parishioners.
In southwestern Cameroon, religious leaders and houses of worship have been caught between government authorities and armed separatists fighting for independence. Separatists abducted priests for their vocal opposition to separatist tactics. For example, they abducted the archbishop of Bamenda and held him for two years for attempting to dismantle barricades they had set up. Separatists also burned down a mosque in Wum in retaliation for reports that Muslims in the area were acting as informants to national security forces.
In central Mali, violent Islamist groups pursuing jihadist objectives attacked land held sacred by Dogon communities. Many members of the Dogon ethnic group combine Muslim practices with traditional beliefs and local customs. For this, they are labeled “pagans” and “apostates” by violent Salafi groups operating in the region. Katiba Macina militants have reportedly targeted and burned a traditional gathering place with significant mystical value to Dogon communities.
These attacks are not random or coincidental. They are deliberate efforts to undermine authority held by religious institutions and inflict fear on civilian populations. By targeting symbols of spiritual significance, armed groups seek to break the spirit of vulnerable communities and sow an atmosphere of terror to put pressure on their opponents to capitulate.
Attacks on religious symbols in African conflicts are abhorrent. These tactics restrict individuals from worshiping and practicing their faith. They sow religious tensions and exacerbate sectarian violence. They also undermine the role that religious leaders and symbols play as forces for peace and tolerance in preventing these violent outbreaks.
U.S. programming in these contexts is often hamstrung by insecurity and lack of access to the most at-risk populations. Multilateral interventions often lack the mandate, capacity, and expertise to protect symbols of religious significance. Global actors attempted to remedy this in Mali when, for the first time, they tasked the United Nations peacekeeping mission there with protecting cultural and historical sites. However, the mission received little guidance on how to translate this priority into a reality, and the task was removed from the mission’s mandate in 2018.
Yet we must not abandon these symbols of spiritual significance to their fate. We need creative thinking to uncover alternative policy options for protecting religious symbols in conflict zones. Military actors operating in these contexts should deploy protection units trained to protect houses of worship and religious leaders from attack, and the United States and its allies could help train and finance such units. The U.S. government could also support and actively monitor investigations into the perpetrators of attacks against religious institutions.
Religious figures and symbols have a strong role to play in reducing violence and fostering interfaith harmony and social cohesion in many African contexts. Armed political actors across the region know this and actively seek to undermine this power by targeting religious leaders and houses of worship. The U.S. government should work with African governments and other international partners to prioritize the safety of communities of faith and the protection of houses of worship and religious leaders in the context of political violence.
James W. Carr and Frederick A. Davie are commissioners of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
