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The Sahel church burnings

John Kiriakou's account of al-Qaeda affiliates and Boko Haram in Chad, Mali and Nigeria attacking schools and churches — opening fire on teachers and administrators, kidnapping children, and burning congregations alive — and his observation that none of it is covered in the American media.

The Sahel church burnings is John Kiriakou’s account, given on 31 October 2025 in answer to a viewer asking about Cameroon, of what he considers the graver situation next door.

Cameroon, he said, matters “less so than Chad, Mali, and Nigeria”, where the actors are “al-Qaeda and its associated groups, Boko Haram. They’re just slaughtering people, especially Christians.”[1][2]

He describes two settled patterns. In the schools, the attackers are “just going into schools and opening fire. They’re kidnapping some of the children and opening fire on the adults, the teachers, the administrators.” In the churches, “they’ll herd people into churches and then set the churches on fire and then shoot anybody who tries to escape from the burning church.”[2]

His closing observation is about the silence rather than the violence: “it’s not being covered in the American media for some reason.”[2][3]

The exchange came in a run of viewer questions about Africa that led both hosts to commit the following week’s programme to the region — Kiriakou having already said of Sudan that they had been remiss.[4][1]

See also

References

  1. DeProgram Show with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas, 2025-11-0119:46 on YouTube · Transcript
  2. DeProgram Show with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas, 2025-11-0120:19 on YouTube · Transcript
  3. DeProgram Show with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas, 2025-11-0120:52 on YouTube · Transcript
  4. DeProgram Show with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas, 2025-11-0110:52 on YouTube · Transcript

Sourced from John Kiriakou's on-record public statements. See his profile for the full body of his interviews, podcast appearances, and short-form video.