Mustaf Hassan - Kidnapped!

Kidnapping

In the southern Somali town of Qoryoley in the Lower Shebelle Region, two witnesses told Morning Star News they saw armed, masked men from Al Shabaab kidnap a 13-year-old boy on Tuesday (Sept. 3) as he approached his home on his way back from school.

Mustaf Hassan was kidnapped near Marka District at about 4 p.m., the sources said. He had been staying with a Muslim relative there since last year, when his parents fled the area after they were suspected of being Christians, another source told Morning Star News.

Another source told Morning Star News that the boy’s parents, Hassan Mohammed and Farhio Omar, were in great pain and grief upon learning of the kidnapping.

“Our son might be killed, and we are also not safe,” Mohammed said.

No ransom has been sought, and Christians suspected the rebels may have abducted Mustaf in an effort to find his parents or other Christians.

Mustaf is the nephew of Fartun Omar, shot to death by Al Shabaab on April 13 in Buulodbarde, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Beledweyne (see Morning Star News, April 22). Omar was the widow of Mursal Isse Siad, killed for his faith on Dec. 8, 2012 in Beledweyne, 206 miles (332 kilometers) north of Mogadishu. He had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam (see Morning Star News, Dec. 14, 2012).

Siad and his wife, who converted to Christianity in 2000, had moved to Beledweyne from Doolow eight months before. The area was under government control and there was no indication that the killers belonged to the Al Shabaab rebels, but the Islamic extremist insurgents were present in Buulodbarde, and Christians believed a few Al Shabaab rebels could have been hiding in Beledweyne.

Source: Morning Star News

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

(Romans 8:35 ESV)