It shouldn’t be possible for us to share this story. But here it is.
“Somali Christians are among the most extremely persecuted in the world. You could be sitting in a cafeteria, enjoying your meal and somebody could come and attempt to decapitate you, to cut your head off.” Aweis Ali doesn’t hold back in sharing the realities of being a Somali Christian within the borders of Somalia.
“In Somalia”, Aweis continues, “it seems it’s impossible to become a Christian – the persecution is so intense that when people count the cost, some may decide not to risk it at all.
“Those who take the plunge know they will lose so much. But with the help of the Holy Spirit, they do it.”
‘It could really cost me my life’
Aweis mostly grew up on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, the son of a Muslim cleric who was preparing Aweis to follow in his footsteps.
“By the time I was 15, my father realized I was not the right successor as I was asking too many sensitive questions,” he explains. “I was never happy with Islam – the more I studied it, the more questions I had.”
At the same time, Aweis was learning English by listening to the radio. “One evening I wanted to find a clear band on my radio, but instead of finding the BBC English service I heard a radio ministry,” he remembers. “I said to myself, ‘Whoa, these are Somali people who are preaching Christ!’”
For Somali people, being Somali is synonymous with being Muslim. For Aweis to hear a Somali proclaim Jesus Christ was both strange and wonderful.
“That was very attractive to me, and I kept listening – I missed the world news that night, but did not regret it,” he says.
In the following days, Aweis kept tuning in to find out more about Jesus. He even wrote to the radio ministry to ask for Bible study materials and a New Testament. He received it by post, not even considering what his family may think or what danger it could cause.
This was many years ago when the postal system was still working in Somalia.
Somalia, on the horn of Africa, is number 2 on the 2026 World Watch List.
In Somalia, conversion to Christianity brings shame to the family name, and in a culture where honour is highly valued, it puts the whole family in disrepute.
“When I chose to become a Christian three years later, I was cut off,” Aweis says. “My family refused to communicate with me, eat with me, spend time with me or include me in family dynamics and discussions. I was an outcast, someone who had defiled the family name. There were threats against my life, and it was very painful. The enmity and the threats I faced were way more than I expected.”
Finding fellowship
For seven years, Aweis followed Jesus by himself, not knowing any other Christians to share his life and faith with. This isolation and the desire to find other believers led Aweis to risk visiting someone whom he had deduced must be a Christian.
“I said, ‘I need fellowship, do you happen to know any Somali Christians?’ She told me, ‘Wait here’ and left, for much longer than I expected,” Aweis remembers. “She came back with a young man, whom she introduced as Liban. I later learned from Liban that she’d gone back to her office and prayed to Jesus to reveal if I was a genuine Christian looking for fellowship, or a mole trying to collect names and information to persecute the church. She prayed for about 20 minutes until God confirmed that I was safe.”
Despite the impossible circumstances of being a secret Christian in Somalia, Aweis had finally met a brother in Christ, inspiring him that God could be leading them to a bold mission. God had made the impossible possible.
Together they started looking for more believers, believing that they could not be the only Jesus-followers. Little by little their community grew. “It was the happiest time I’d had, since I’d come to the Lord,” Aweis explains.
After finally getting a group of Christians together, the persecution began in earnest.
A hunted house church
They finally had a little house church, and Aweis hurts when he recalls what came next. “That’s when the persecution started.”
“Liban was the first to be killed. He was reporting to work, when he was shot and killed by two gunmen from the radical Islamist group Al-Tahat Al-Islamiyah. Within a short time, another person was killed. So, we had no doubt that we were being targeted,” he says. “But we had started receiving visions and dreams from God. We were receiving these regular affirmations that [the persecution] would continue, and it would get bad, but at the end of the day we would emerge stronger. God was guiding us throughout. It made us bolder. We prayed longer and we prayed better.”
Shockingly, after a couple of years only two members remained. The rest were martyred for their faith.
The unrelenting violence took a big toll on Aweis. “I’d lost almost all my friends. I couldn’t eat, and I lost so much weight. I couldn’t sleep due to the constant threats and spiritually I was not doing well. He decided to leave the country.
‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’
But what is impossible for man, is possible with God.
Whilst recuperating in another country, Aweis was given the opportunity to attend theological college by a missionary couple, giving him the strength and support he needed to continue his ministry. As Tertullian, the early Christian church father from North Africa famously said, ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’.”
Discipleship, Discipleship, Discipleship
Today, Aweis is a scholar, prolific author, bible translator and continues to minister to Somali believers in the Horn of Africa through discipleship and leadership training. He works with many Somali believers who live in other countries surrounding Somalia itself.
“But without proper discipleship, you cannot have a healthy community of faith. The church has to be taught everything Jesus taught, and, I can’t say enough of this, but we need trauma healing,”
“When I see how the Holy Spirit is leading this small church, it gives me special joy.”
“But without proper discipleship, you cannot have a healthy community of faith,” Aweis warns. “The church has to be taught everything Jesus taught,” he says. “ “And, I can’t say enough of this, but we need trauma healing,” Aweis implores. “The Somali church is doubly traumatised – we are part of the community that is facing the lawlessness and anarchy of the nation, but we also have the trauma caused by the persecution of our faith.”
“And when someone comes to the Lord, that’s the first time we prepare them for persecution. We tell them how to act wisely, to be wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove.”
Open Doors ministry leaves a legacy behind. When we train one believer, then that believer trains another believer, and it continues like that. The ripple effect strengthens the health of the Somali church.
Today, Aweis is a prolific author and Christian leader ministering to Somali Christians.
‘We refuse to keep quiet’
Despite the many dangers, Aweis is resolute in his determination to keep ministering. “My vision for the Somali church is to become a normal, accepted part of the Somali society.
“A day when you will not lose your own children or spouse because of your faith. A time when the government will not put you in prison because of your faith. I want to see a day when there is general acceptance for the Somali church.”
Aweis is bold in his assurance. “Some Somali Christians now believe, and I’m one of them, that the era of hiding is over,” he says. “We will not live in fear. We refuse to be intimidated. We refuse for our existence to be denied. We want to show the world and the Somali people that we do exist. We need a voice, and we have to become our own voice. We want to be like Peter at Pentecost, to be like the book of Acts. We want to speak out and see thousands of people coming to the Lord. ”
For Aweis, this means that he doesn’t hide his face, as you can see in the photo above. But it’s not foolhardiness: “Being bold, also requires wisdom,” he says.
“We can’t be too timid, but we can’t be foolish. Most Somali Christians in Somalia who are under the sword want to remain underground, and there’s nothing wrong with that because it’s an extremely volatile situation. They have to be very careful, and we respect that. But those Somali Christians who have the freedom to speak up, who have the privilege to say, ‘We are followers of Christ, and we do not apologise for it’, should do it.”
However, Aweis’ bold choice to be open with his faith, identity and ministry is not without real risk.
“It’s not easy to do, to be in Somali ministry. If you care about your physical safety, your personal safety, it’s not what you do. We have a ‘joke’ in the Somali church that if you become a Somali pastor, you don’t have to worry about your retirement fund!” he says with a laugh.
“Jesus means everything to me, so much so that my life will be worthless, not worth living if I did not have Him.”
“Jesus means everything to me, so much so that my life will be worthless, not worth living if I did not have him.” -Aweis
Appendix: How does Open Doors work in the horn of Africa?
Zakariya* is the Open Doors coordinator overseeing the work to support Somali believers across the Horn of Africa. As Zakariya explains below, the ministry leads many different projects and initiatives; to provide the Somali church with the support it needs to continue to grow, despite the intense persecution.
“There is no open church anywhere in Somalia or in the Horn of Africa. That means where the Somali church is growing, it is invisible.
“Because Somali believers often come to faith in isolation and face extreme risk if discovered, they need spiritual support through contextualised discipleship. Because of the dangers involved, we have to find innovative ways to minister to different age groups and genders, to families and to leaders. We also seek to address the high levels of trauma among Somali believers.
“Economic empowerment is another very important thing that the ministry is doing – facilitating the set-up of small businesses and home sales. Women are especially benefitting from this. “If we don’t do this work, life will become very difficult for the Somali church in the Horn of Africa. We are not the only ones doing this work, but the work we do is important and the church needs our continued support. So, we are doing our very best for Somali believers to be strong.”
*Name changed to protect identities
