Threatened by Islamists when they heard about his work at a church in Djalloube, central Mali, Sory* fled, leaving his family traumatised.
‘I started to face serious problems when the Islamists heard about me and the conversion of some of the people [from Islam to Christianity],’ Sory says. ‘They sent me warnings through friends, telling me to stop talking about Jesus or risk getting killed. They said they knew it was easy to kill Christians because [Christians] don’t have any weapons. They can simply be slaughtered.’
Sory remembers how not long after that, the jihadists attacked security forces stationed in the forests and killed an officer near where he lived. ‘Neighbours warned me that they were also looking for me. I did not waste a moment, but fled immediately,’ he recalls. ‘My wife and children stayed behind with my neighbour.’
