CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 2015 Islamic State militants beheaded 21 Coptic Christian migrant workers on a beach in Libya, provoking international outrage and mourning in Egypt.
Sources: Human Rights Watch ; BBC News ; CNN
Tragedy
Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
On this day: February 15 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 2015 
CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons 1981 Rita Jeptoo, Kenyan marathon runner, was born.
Sources: World Athletics ; PBS NewsHour
Birth
CC0, Wikimedia Commons 1993 Geoffrey Kondogbia, the French-born footballer who later played international football for the Central African Republic, was born.
Sources: Club Atletico de Madrid ; National Football Teams
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
BirthMuhsin Hendricks was shot dead in Gqeberha, South Africa, as he left to officiate an interfaith wedding. Two masked men fired into his car and drove off. Hendricks had come out as a gay imam in 1996 and built a support network and later a mosque for LGBT Muslims. His family said he had regularly received death threats, and the deputy justice minister said the killing should be investigated as a hate crime.
Sources: Human Rights Watch ; South African Department of Justice
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
DeathKing Pedro IV of Kongo took São Salvador, the capital, from his rival Pedro Constantinho da Silva, who was killed. Pedro went into the battle unarmed, carrying a crucifix from the altar of his chapel.
Sources: Journal of Religion in Africa ; Cambridge University Press
Read the full article: Kongo, Central Africa's Christian Kingdom
Battle