26 May 2018 will mark the first anniversary of the attack on two buses carrying Coptic Christians on their way to St. Samuel’s Monastery to celebrate Ascension Day*.
The convoy was stopped at 9.30am on a remote desert road, close to the border between the Minya and Beni Suef provinces, by masked attackers armed with machine guns.
The gunmen opened fire and killed 28 Copts, including two children. Twenty-five others were injured.
Among the victims was Nadia’s son Hany. He, along with other men, refused to comply with the demand of the attackers to convert to Islam and was killed in front of his mother.
Recently, Christian charity Open Doors International visited Nadia in her home in Beni Suef province. Nadia recalled the day as it unfolded and called herself “the mother of six children, one of whom is in Heaven”.
*The Feast of the Ascension falls 40 days after Easter, so for the Orthodox Church this year it was on 17 May.
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