General

A timeline of ISIS terror

August 15, 2014 Iraq Islamic State, Nineveh Plains

In June, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a splinter group of al-Qaeda known as ISIS, began an offensive across northern Iraq. It first seized Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, and a handful of smaller towns. Tens of thousands of Iraqis, many of them Christian, have fled their . . . Read More

Attack on nuns said to be first ever in Bangladesh

August 12, 2014 Bangladesh Bangladesh, Islamic extremism, Rangpur

Bangladeshi nun describes the attack to the police.© Diocese of Dinajpur/Aid to the Church in Need A mob of about 60 people armed with machetes, knives and iron rods raided a Catholic convent and beat up its nuns and priest – the Catholic mission in Rangpur district, 280 kilometers . . . Read More

CAR President names country’s first ever Muslim Prime Minister

August 12, 2014 Central African Republic Anti-balaka, Bambari, Bangui, Bossangoa, Catherine Samba-Panza, Central African Republic, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Nicolas Guérékoyamé-Gbangou, Oumar Kobine Layama, Seleka, UN

Portrait of a Fulani woman and her children in Central African Republic. May 19, 2014World Watch Monitor The President of the Central African Republic has replaced the Christian Prime Minister with a Muslim as part of a peace deal to end deadly violence that has ravaged the country for . . . Read More

Boko Haram overruns town, kills 100

August 11, 2014 Nigeria Abuja, Boko Haram, Borno, Chibok girls, Church of Christ in Nigeria, Gwoza, Katsina, Nigeria, Sabon Gari

Some of the displaced children in Gulak Adamawa state. Christians in Gulak are caring for about 300 children orphaned or separated from their parents because of Boko Haram attacks. May 22, 2014World Watch Monitor Suspected members of the radical Islamic group Boko Haram have taken over Gwoza, a major . . . Read More

Qaraqosh falls, thousands flee

August 8, 2014 Iraq Ankawa, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Peshmerga, Qaraqosh, Tel Kaif

Map of IS occupation in Iraq as of August 7 2014. Courtesy of Open Doors International Armed jihadists of the so-called “Islamic State” took over Iraq’s largest Christian town, Qaraqosh, and nearby Christian settlements early Thursday, forcing thousands of Christians to flee to Kurdish-controlled areas. Statements of anguish and . . . Read More

Cameroon pastor among 25 killed as Deputy Prime Minister’s wife kidnapped

August 4, 2014 Cameroon Adamawa, Boko Haram, Cameroon, Chad, Far North, Kidnapping, Maroua, Nigeria, Ramadan, Yaoundé

At least 25 people were killed in Cameroon, among them a church leader, as militants carried out two attacks in the far north of Cameroon at the end of July. In one attack in the town of Kolofata, the wife of the Deputy Prime Minister and her maid were kidnapped, . . . Read More

CAR archbishop hopeful, cautious about cease-fire

August 1, 2014 Central African Republic Anti-balaka, Genocide, Seleka, UN

Dieudonné Nzapalainga, archbishop of BanguiCourtesy of Open Doors International Armed groups in the Central African Republic have reached a cease-fire deal aimed at putting an end to the violence that has engulfed the country since March 2013. The 10-part agreement was signed July 23 in Brazzaville, the capital of . . . Read More

Two Finnish Christian aid workers killed in Afghanistan

July 25, 2014 Afghanistan Afghanistan, Badakhshan, Elections, Hamid Karzai, Herat, Kabul, Ramadan, Takhar, Taliban

Two Finnish women working for a Christian aid charity have been killed by gunmen in Herat, Afghanistan; both had worked in Afghanistan for 16 years, having arrived there together in March 1997. Two men, travelling by motorcycle, shot two women, who worked for the International Assistance Mission, IAM – while . . . Read More

Kidnapped girls’ parents die as Chibok’s trauma rises

July 24, 2014 Nigeria Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Goodluck Jonathan, Trauma

Chibok girls who managed to escape arriving at Nigeria’s State House to meet with Nigerian President Jonathan. Abuja, Nigeria; July 22, 2014Reuben Abati, Presidential Spokesman, Nigeria For the missing Nigerian girls kidnapped over 100 days ago, another trauma has emerged. Eleven of the group of grieving parents have died, . . . Read More

IS invades monastery, steals ‘everything’ from Iraqi Christians

July 22, 2014 Iraq Al-Qaeda, Alqosh, Baghdad, Batnaya, Chaldeans, Dohuk, Erbil, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jizya, Kidnapping, Kurds, Louis Raphael I Sako, Minorities, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Sunni, Tel Kaif

After every known Christian is reported to have left Mosul, Islamic State fighters, IS, have now taken over a monastery near the largely Christian town of Qaraqosh, 32 miles southeast of Mosul. According to Agence France Presse IS expelled its three resident monks, a cleric and a few families living there, ordering . . . Read More

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