Disciples Today and ICOC Hot News bring you updates on disciples in danger around the world as we join in prayer and fasting for them and others who are being affected. Herve Fleurant, who with his wife Janet spent many years as a missionary in Africa, sends this latest detailed update on our church in Abijdan, Ivory Coast.
Click here for the call for Prayer and Fasting in the month of March.
I spoke with Abidjan Lead Evangelist Francis Dasse’ this morning and wanted to give you an update on the situation in Abidjan.
There was continuous shooting all last night around his house. He and his family are safe but it was a very rough night. Yesterday gangs of young Muslims were trying to take over the streets of his area called Koumassi.
It seems that during the night security forces attacked these gangs and were able to round a up a good number of them. There were casualties but the number has yet to be determined. The gangs tried to burn down a Catholic Church last night and there were some brothers who came out to help put the fire out.
Francis explained that most of the trouble in Abidjan is concentrated in 4 main pro-Ouatarra districts. They are called: Adjame’, Treicheville, Abobo, and Koumassi in which we have 92, 90, 292, and 140 disciples respectively. These are predominantly Muslim areas. It seems that things are lining up along religious lines. The Ivory Coast has always been a peaceful and very tolerant country and to see this happening is a true tragedy.
Francis is considering moving his family to a safer neighborhood while he stays behind with some brothers to guard his home from looters. As always in times like these, a criminal element is taking advantage of the situation to ransack the homes of people who evacuate.
The other 6 districts in Abidjan are calm and life is more or less normal, with people going to work and to school. Of course that could change at anytime. For now Francis and I have discussed the possibility of moving disciples out of the troubled areas to safer ones. He and the other Evangelists there will discuss this and come up with a plan.
Of the original 100 or so disciples that evacuated Abobo in the last few days ,there are around 30 disciples still staying on the church property and Eric LeBerre, one of the Evangelists, reports that it is becoming difficult to care for them. A little over 60 have already been placed either with other disciples or with family members.
In Abobo, which has become a war zone, there are still around 150 disciples that are unaccounted for but are believed to be safe.. Some may have fled to their home villages to wait things out or to other family members in Abidjan. The disciples are looking for them.
As we work together here in the US to provide funding and any assistance we can, please let us continue to pray, fast and get the word out to inform our Churches of what is going on. As Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen dominate the airwaves, I want to thank Mike Taliaferro, Mark Ottenweller, Roger Lamb and especially the New York City Evangelists and Elders for all you are doing to keep the plight of our over 2000 disciples in the Ivory Coast in front of us through HotNews, DisciplesToday and the Hope website.
I will keep you posted on the latest as I hear it from Francis and the disciples there in Abidjan.
Herve’ Fleurant
San Antonio, Texas
