General

The potential impact of US elections on the Church in Cuba

October 26, 2016 Cuba Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Elections, Havana, Hilary Clinton, Latin America, Raúl Castro

It’s been a year since the US embassy in Havana was opened, followed by the historic visit by President Barack Obama. Since then, collaboration between the two countries has increased. “Direct flights are due to begin this month, travel restrictions have been eased for US citizens and bilateral cooperation increased . . . Read More

Why the Cuban Church is still under pressure

October 26, 2016 Cuba Communism, Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro

Cuba is one of the few remaining communist governments in the world. Ten years ago, the country’s ageing leader, Fidel Castro, was replaced by his brother, Raúl, but the government stayed essentially the same and desired changes did not take place, although there have been relaxed controls over some . . . Read More

Nigerian Middle Belt state: 800+ Christians killed, 800+ injured, 100+ churches destroyed

October 26, 2016 Nigeria Benue, Fulani herdsmen, Kaduna, Middle Belt, Nasarawa, Taraba

Nigeria’s Middle Belt is the scene of ever-continuing attacks on Christian farmers by mainly Muslim Hausa-Fulani herdsmen, including this past week where attacks have occurred in both Kaduna and Benue states. Now a recent report about another state in the Middle Belt, Nasarawa, shows that it too has been the scene . . . Read More

Iraqi Christian girls, hiding under bed from IS, text priest: ‘Please come for us’

October 25, 2016 Iraq Erbil, Islamic State, Kirkuk, Mosul

“It’s a miracle. A true miracle. We prayed a lot and God answered.” The words of Iraqi Syriac-Catholic priest Ammar in the wake of last weekend’s remarkable story of seven Christian female students in Kirkuk, who hid under their beds for seven hours while soldiers from the self-proclaimed Islamic State . . . Read More

More Iraqi towns ‘freed’ but Nineveh Christians not confident about safe return

October 25, 2016 Iraq Bartella, Bashiqa, Chaldeans, Islamic State, Karamles, Middle East, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Qaraqosh, Tel Kaif

The heavily damaged and burnt Tahira (Immaculate) Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdeda.World Watch Monitor As prayers were offered in Syriac in front of the altar of the trashed church of Mart Shmoni in the recently freed town of Bartella, more homes where Christians used to live in Iraq’s north-eastern . . . Read More

12 killed in attack ‘by Al-Shabaab gunmen targeting Kenyan Christians’

October 25, 2016 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Islamic extremism, Mandera, Somalia

Six people were killed during this Al-Shabaab attack on the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in July. Twelve people have been killed in an attack in north-east Kenya believed to have been carried out by the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab. Media outlets sympathetic to the group reported that the latest incident . . . Read More

Germany refugee centre an ‘example for others’ dealing with interfaith conflict

October 24, 2016 Eritrea, Ethiopia, Europe, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Migrants, Refugees

A week after a new report claimed that life for some Christian refugees in Germany is “still unbearable“, a case study has been released as an example for other refugee centres to follow. The study, which profiles a refugee centre in the central German town of Rotenburg an der Fulda, . . . Read More

Iraqi Christians look homeward toward Mosul, uncertainly

October 21, 2016 Iraq Bashiqa, Islamic State, Jordan, Kurds, Lebanon, Mosul, Peshmerga, Refugees, Saddam Hussein

Displaced Iraqi Christians take part in celebrations on 18 October in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, to mark the liberation of Qaraqosh, which was Iraq’s largest Christian town before it was overun by Islamic State militants in August 2014. Tens of thousands of . . . Read More

US academic and refugee aid worker ‘banned for life’ from Turkey

October 21, 2016 Turkey Ankara, Coup, Ryan Keating

Ryan Keating was a doctoral student at Ankara University.World Watch Monitor Turkey deported an American Christian pursuing doctoral studies at Ankara University this week, revoking his residence visa 10 years after the scholar and his family first arrived in the country. Ryan D. Keating, a Yale University graduate, was refused entry . . . Read More

40 killed as suspected Fulani herdsmen raid Christian community in Nigeria

October 20, 2016 Fulani herdsmen, Kaduna, Nigeria

The aftermath of the attack in Godogodo, a Christian settlement in Nigeria’s northern State of Kaduna, Oct. 2016.CSW Nigeria Gunmen believed to be Fulani herdsmen have killed more than 40 people in Godogodo village, a Christian settlement in the Jama’a Local Government Area in Nigeria’s northern state of Kaduna. . . . Read More

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