Greetings JL and Patt,

Thanks for asking about our priority needs here in Bamako.  For now, we discern the following needs:

• Lodging costs because many refugees are yet looking for homes or places to stay in. We already rented two houses of 4 rooms each for four families. The cost for each house is $350 per month. We need to rent at least four or five more houses before the rainy season starts.
• Living expenses food, water & electricity. We have today 33 families. 16 families of at least five members and 17 families of more than five members, at least 7 and some have 13.  Bamako is very expensive and the weekly donation for all the families is $2,500; rice is provided.
• Health concerns is a big need. We have a lot of children, pregnant women, etc. We have to take care of prescriptions and doctors fees.
• Schooling fees since some kids are in exams classes: 9^th grade, High School Juniors and university. We have to pay for tuition  for 77 children which is $5,200. The number will grow because we have families coming.
• Micro-credits to allow men and women to cover some essential needs for themselves etc. $225 to start some kind of business for a family.
• Transportation fees to go back home when it can be possible; $60 per person. We are almost 200 people today and the number keeps growing.

Hope this will help you get a glimpse of the many and various needs.  Thanks again for your help and support.

Dr. & Mrs. MOHAMED-IBRAHIM YATTARA
INSTITUT BIBLIQUE DE LA BOUCLE

Dear friends and partners in Christ,

Sincere regards and warm greetings in Christ Jesus.  Our time for my wife Fati & I to leave Mali to USA for 3 weeks is here and we have to leave Mali today by 8:30 PM.  Our battery is low and there is no electricity before leaving to the Airport by 5:30 PM to write back again.

MALI still needs your prayers:

• The Northern part (more than 2/3 of the country) is yet occupied by terrorist groups of Touaregs and Arabs calling themselves "Arabs Front of Liberation of Azawad"
• All Northern regions populations are massively leaving the area.  Only 15% of population are yet in Timbuktu and the rebels are threatening to close the roads by April 20^th, 2012
• Gao has also less than 30% of the population yet remaining in the city
• All Northern populations are under a serious threat of hunger and water supplies problems if a humanitarian road is not opened quickly from South to North.
• In Timbuktu, Beatrice, the Switzerland missionary, was taken in hostage but none of the organization claimed to be behind the action
• In Timbuktu airport area 7 rebels died mysteriously
• MALI and ECOWAS threat to a new war is possible
• Bamako mutiny effects is yet strong and last night a number of high officers and political leaders are again arrested and big gunshots were again heard
• Yesterday the rebels in Timbuktu looted and sacked the 'Living Waters Project' – all equipment and furniture.  Today they are looting and sacking our FM Radio Station and Guest House built by JL

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR FAITHFUL SUPPORT AND PRAYERS IN CHRIST.

Your servant in Him,

Pastor Nouh Yattara

Dear JLPF,

Because of the presence of Islamists and insurgents, the churches of the north have left all regions.  All Christians are refugees in a Christian center in Bamako.

The Churches of Gao and Dire Niafunke were destroyed.  Both are in the region of Timbuktu. These rebels were also looting all good of the Marshall Family at Living Water.

We need your spiritual and material support.  We appreciate it even if it's food for one day or something so we can pay the rent or enroll a child in school.  Should God put a donation in your heart, Western Union is the fastest way whether the donation is for family or for all believers.  Today we are at 210 people.

Fraternally in Christ,

Pastor Mohamed Ali Ag Aleyda and Family

It was Pastor Nouh who first invited me to come and minister in Timbuktu.  Through the course of a half a dozen trips there, we became great friends and partners.  He also became a wise mentor to me on the subject of Islam.  It was he who led his young nephew to the Lord, Mohamed-Ibrahim Yattara, whom we have also been reporting on in recent emails.  Now they are both exiles from their home Cities of Timbuktu and Gao.  Together they are the "Moses & Joshua" of the Body of Christ in Mali.

Please read this recent interview by Pastor Nouh before he had to flee the City of Timbuktu.  And continue to pray for him and Fati as they seek to minister to all of the Christians who have been reduced to refugee status in their own country.  They plan to come to the States soon for a visit and we hope to have them in our area to speak about this latest crisis in Mali…

For our persecuted brothers & sisters in Mali,

JL

PS:  At the end of this interview, I have added a box of brief facts to help you understand a few of the basics about this very complicated political, religious and cultural crisis in Mali.

Fearing Persecution, Christians Flee Northern Mali

Megan Radford

Tunisia Live

April 4, 2012

Pastor Yattara working with children in Timbuktu

On Thursday, March 29, 2012, Pastor Nouh Yattara and his wife left their home in Timbuktu for Mali’s capital, Bamako, not knowing when they would be able to return.

“I knew they would come any time,” he said over the phone. “I had many signs.”

“They” are the Islamist Tuareg rebels who have been vying for control of the northern region of Mali since January, and for decades before that in sporadic uprisings. On Sunday, April 1 they took control of Timbuktu from the military, and have held a tight grip on the area since then.

Yattara works as a Baptist pastor and social worker in Timbuktu. He is a Tuareg himself, and he has lived in the ancient city all his life. He and his family run programs for the impoverished Tuareg community. Some of those include food relief, community schools, health clinics, women’s skill centres, help for abandoned and orphaned children, and agricultural programs. Through these activities, Yattara is well known in his community as a Christian pastor. Because of his faith, he felt that he might be a target once Islamists, headed by the powerful leader Iyad Ag Ghaly, controlled the city and began imposing Shariaa law.

“I had many people telling me to get out,” he said.

Yattara assured us that his 11 adopted children are safe in the care of relatives and friends. Since he has arrived in Bamako, around 200 Christians have fled his hometown, and are seeking shelter in the capital city. His task now is to find them safe places to stay, and food to eat.

“We don’t know where to put them,” he expressed. “They left everything they have in Timbuktu.”

Outside the Evangelical Church in Timbuktu

Since the beginning of this year’s Tuareg rebellion, UN agencies estimate that more than 200,000 people have been displaced. Around half of these have fled Mali, many of them crossing into neighbouring Mauritania and Burkina Faso.

Baba Moulaye is a tailor living in Timbuktu. He said that the situation there is calm, but that commerce has stopped. The thieves and looters have been caught, he related, but the stores are still closed.

“There is no system of justice,” he said when asked if the rebels had imposed Shariaa law. But, he said, the city is not the site of chaos some are making it out to be. “There is no violence. There are no problems. Everyone is equal.” However, Moulaye acknowledged that Christians are continuing to flee Timbuktu.

When asked if he had any hopes for the outcome of these events, he told Tunisia Live, “I don’t see a solution. I am a Muslim, so I am praying to God.”

Timbuktu is not the only city affected by the rebel Tuareg groups. Tunisia Live spoke with a Christian professor in the city of Gao who is still in the process of trying to get his family, and scores of other Christians out of the city. He asked that his name not be published till they are safely away from the rebel groups.

“I have 69 people on my list from different churches in the city,” he said. “We are trying to get a bus to Bamako but so far we have not been able to.”

A group of Tuareg in Mali

The professor is without a means of transportation after rebels came to his door and said they were taking his car. He told us that there is no gas in the city, and that the water and electricity will likely run out soon. Shops are closed, he said, but people are beginning to work to clean up the city.

So far, the professor said, Christians have not been victimized. Their property has been vandalized and looted, but not because of their faith. Still, with the flags of the Islamic rebels flying around the city, he fears that soon they may become a target.

“Things are getting worse,” he said over the phone. “In the long run there may be a solution, but immediately, I don’t see hope.”

SOME BASIC FACTS ABOUT MALI

• Mali is in West Africa; a semi-democratic country
• Mali was formerly ruled by France under colonialism
• Tuareg rebels & Islamic jihadists (al-Qaeda) proclaimed independence of the north; cutting the country in two
• The Tuaregs are 1.5 million nomadic people scattered between Mali, Niger and Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso
• About 550,000 living in northern Mali
• For decades they have rebelled against Bamako
• The Tuaregs are Berber in origin
• Known as the 'blue men' and 'lords of the Sahara'
• Speak their own Tamashek language
• The Tuaregs follow 'folk Islam' and are generally not radical Islamics
• Many served as mercenaries in the Libyan Army for Muammar Gaddafi
• After the fall of Gaddafi, they returned to Mali well trained and well armed
• The Tuaregs named Gao as the Capital City of their new country
• For the Tuaregs it is a 'liberation movement' for independence
• For the Islamists it is a holy war for Allah
• Tuareg Group: 'National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad' (MNLA)
• New name of North Mali: 'Azawad' (considered the cradle of the Tuareg culture)
• The impotence of the Malian Government in the face of this led to a military coup d'etat in Bamako, the Capital City, March 22
• The 'Economic Commnity of West African States' (ECOWAS) has been trying to broker a solution
• The Islamists who captured Timbuktu have instituted Sharai law
• Widespread abuse and raping of women and girls is being reported
• As the Tuaregs & Islamic radicals took the north of Mali, mass migrations took place to Bamako
• A humanitarian crisis has resulted with little food, water and medicine for the refugees
• Christians have been especially persecuted and have lost their homes, churches, vehicles, possessions

If you would like to send a special gift to help Pastor Nouh and Fati at this time through JLPF, please do so by clicking here (100% designation).

My friend, if America doesn't wake up to the realities of Islamic radicalism globally and locally, these names and places taken in Mali by fanatic fundamentalists could soon become our own!

Finally for now, since Pastor Mohamed is for the time being safe in Bamako, we want to collect and send him some funds to help them during this crisis.  So PLEASE send in what you can as quick as you can so we can send him some financial sustenance ASAP.

Thanks…JL 

Greetings again, 

Here are some prayer items:

1. The situation in Gao is getting worse. No water or electricity, the market is still closed but few butchers in the streets. On Monday, the rebels looted the Assemblies of God Church. We did our best, when we were leaving the city to evacuate their pastor and family with 2 believers.

2.  The pastor of the Bible Church, who is a brother from Nigeria, is still  trapped in Gao.  I called him one time and the line was cut off.  I think his phone battery went flat. I did not know where he was hiding to go get him.  I was told today that he is doing well and still trying to get out of Gao.

3. Pastor Zack of Alabaster Ministries is from Ghana, he made it safe and sound to his home country. We didn’t hear from two families from our church. They are not in their homes according to my friend who looked for them today.

4. The Ansar Dine Faction, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the Movement for Unity & Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) started imposing Islamic sharia law in areas under their control. We are also told that that some 100 members of Nigeria’s Boko Haram Sect are among Islamists controlling Gao. It is all over in the news that they slaughter one thief, shot the second and have cut many hands off. The population left in Gao is estmated at  40 percent and 20 in Timbuktu. We have a deep concern at the growing terrorist threat in the North of Mali.

5. On security matters, ECOWAS has raised the prospect of sending a force of up to 3,000 men to try to reclaim northern Mali. we don't know when this will happen.  All we  can do is to pray and hope .The situation in the three northern regions (Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu) is dramatic. There are no more hospitals and hunger is growing.

6. In Timbuktu area, Pastor Alhousseini Coulibaly, the missionary in Goundam, his wife and baby are missing.  Pastor Nouh was not able to contact him. The phone of Pastor David Douyon in Niafunke is on hold. He was heard of on Sunday when they were looting the church, his house and the missionary station.  We still have few believers who are trapped in these different cities and they need your prayers.

7. This morning at 11 AM, we were 166 “refugees” from our different churches.  This number will keep growing for we expect more people in the coming days.

I am staying at the Evangelical Baptist Mission Guesthouse (EBM) with my family.  We are for now 5 families, 35 people living in the two-story house.  We expect a family with 5 children today or tomorrow. Most of our people coming from Gao,  Timbuktu, Dire, and Tonka are staying at Campus Crusade Guesthouse at one block from us. A third group is staying very far from us. The biggest problem is to find a place where we can put all our people.

The believers and churches in Bamako have welcomed us with food and clothes and money.  Housing is still a thorn in our pillow.  Under the umbrella of the Association of Evangelical & Protestant Churches & Missions of Mali, a commission for refugees is established to help and inform the authorities about what happened to the churches and believers of the North.

Our next step is to find schools in walking distance for our children. I have two daughters who are in 9th grade and are preparing a national exam this year for high school.  We have many young people in the families who are taking the SAT this year or some kind of exams.

Next week, we will attempt to resume our Bible school classes.  Since all our students are staying in the EBM Guesthouse, we just need to find a classroom.  The national seminary not far from us is willing to give us one room for class. Please pray.  While we are here, our deepest desire is to help the church and be involved in spreading the Gospel. We need your prayers and wisdom to see how we can do that.

Grace and peace

Dr. & Mrs. MOHAMED-IBRAHIM YATTARA

INSTITUT BIBLIQUE DE LA BOUCLE

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