Year: 2018

Turkey gives Western Christian evangelist 15 days to leave country

October 25, 2018 Turkey Ankara, David Byle, Istanbul, Police, Proselytism, Turkey, USA

After 20 months in bureaucratic limbo, Canadian-American Christian David Byle was arrested on 13 October and detained overnight by security police in Ankara, the Turkish capital. His detention took place the morning after US pastor Andrew Brunson was ordered released by an Izmir court and allowed to return to the . . . Read More

Coptic woman who lost half her face in church bombing arrives in Germany for operation

October 24, 2018 Egypt Cairo, Copts, Egypt

The Coptic Christian woman who lost the right side of her face in a bomb attack on her church in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in 2016 is now in Germany for a complicated operation, World Watch Monitor has learnt. Samiha Tawfiq will be treated at a university hospital in the . . . Read More

Sudanese Christians beaten before release

October 23, 2018 Sudan Darfur, Mariam Ibrahim, NISS, Nyala, Religious freedom, Sudan

It is not clear if any of the released Christians will face further prosecution. (Photo: Getty Images)

A group of Darfuri Christians arrested last week have now been released but only after they faced severe pressure for their faith and were beaten while in detention, a local source has told World Watch Monitor. The group of 13 Christians were taken by security officials from a home they . . . Read More

Nigerian student recalls the night 10 family members were killed in front of her

October 22, 2018 Nigeria Christian Association of Nigeria, Fulani herdsmen, Jos, Nigeria, Plateau, Rape

When 23-year-old student Blessing Kogi returned home on Thursday 27 September, she was full of joy, expecting to spend a restful evening with her family in their quiet, residential neighbourhood of Rukuba Road, in the south-western outskirts of Jos, the capital of Nigeria’s Plateau state. Twelve members of her family . . . Read More

Asia Bibi appeal complainant not even present at time of her alleged ‘blasphemy’

October 19, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Minorities, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Quran

Asia Bibi with Punjab Governor, Salmaan Taseer, who was assassinated for supporting her case. (Photo: Office of the Governor of Punjab)

Asia Bibi’s final appeal against her execution in the Supreme Court of Pakistan went on for more than two hours. Below, World Watch Monitor provides details of what was said. Asia Bibi’s appeal hearing on 8 October took place before a three-member bench – Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif . . . Read More

One year after Marawi’s liberation from IS, thousands of Christians still displaced

October 19, 2018 Philippines Catholics, Islamic State, Marawi, Maute, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte

Street in battle-scarred Marawi in a still taken from a video.

A year ago this month, the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, declared victory over Islamic State-linked militants in a battle for the city of Marawi in the south of the country. On 23 May 2017, militants belonging to the Maute group, an affiliate of Islamic State, had taken over . . . Read More

Sudan: 13 Christians arrested in Darfur, another church told to hand over property

October 17, 2018 Sudan Darfur, NISS, Nyala, Omdurman, Sudan, Sudanese Church of Christ

Sudan's Christians feel that recent developments such as the handing back of property to churches and the release of a shipment of Bibles, were merely "cosmetic" efforts to placate the international community into normalising relations. (Photo: Getty Images)

Sudanese security officials arrested 13 Christians in the western region of Darfur on Saturday, 13 October. The Christians were taken from a home they share in the city of Nyala, southwest Darfur, by officials belonging to the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) but it is not clear on what . . . Read More

1,000 days since kidnap of 84-year-old doctor in Burkina Faso, family plead for his release

October 16, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Burkina Faso, Djibo, Ken Elliott, Ouagadougou

It’s over 1,000 days now since an Australian doctor, Ken Elliott, was kidnapped in Djibo, Burkina Faso, on 15 January, 2016. His abduction was claimed by the ‘Emirate of the Sahara’, a branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Dr. Elliott, with his wife, had run a 120-bed clinic in . . . Read More

Kenya: Two Christian teachers killed by suspected Al-Shabaab attackers

October 16, 2018 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Education, Islamic extremism, Kenya, Mandera, Somalia, Uhuru Kenyatta

The house near Arabia Boys Secondary school, where the two non-local teachers died after an attack suspected Al-Shabaab militants last week. (Photo: Facebook)

Two Christian school teachers were killed in an attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Kenya’s Mandera County, near the Somali border, last week. Philip Okumu, 26, and Daniel Wekesa 39, died on Wednesday (10 October) after assailants raided the house for non-local teachers in Arabia Boys Secondary School, about one . . . Read More

Nigerian Islamist extremists kill aid worker ‘for work for Red Cross’, Christians ‘slaves for life’

October 16, 2018 Nigeria Abuja, Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Justin Welby, Leah Sharibu, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria

In Nigeria, a faction of Boko Haram – the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) – has killed a second aid worker kidnapped eight months ago. It’s also threatened to keep 15-year-old Leah Sharibu and Alice Loksha Ngaddah, a Christian nurse with UNICEF and mother of two (a boy, five, and . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye