News

‘I need God to help me forget’

  April 13, 2015 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Garissa, Nairobi, Pentecostals

The chairman of Garissa University College’s Christian Union, who survived the April 2 Al-Shabaab attack in which 148 students were killed, has pleaded for prayer for the physical and psychological healing of survivors. “Please pray for us… Many saw sights too horrible to describe,” said 21-year-old Frederick Gitonga. “Pray for . . . Read More

Hope – and anxiety – after Buhari’s win

  April 9, 2015 Nigeria APC, Boko Haram, Elections, Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari, Pentecostals

Former Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress candidate for president, at Chatham House in London in February 2015.Flickr / Chatham House / Creative Commons   Nigeria’s Christians, especially those in the troubled northeast, had a good reason to be worried that Muhammadu Buhari would be elected president. The former . . . Read More

Turkish authorities ask tiny Christian community to help Yazidi refugees

  April 9, 2015 Turkey Diyarbakir, Iraq, Islamic State, Jerry Mattix, Refugees, Suruç, Syria, Turkey, Yazidis

As a Turkish Christian, Ender Peker is used to facing hostility from religious Muslims, particularly because he lives in Turkey’s conservative southeast. So he was shocked last fall when an imam asked him to take over food distribution at a nearby refugee camp. “He said to me, ‘I want you . . . Read More

Kenya mourns students ‘killed while praying’

  April 9, 2015 Kenya Al-Shabaab, East Africa, Garissa, Kenya, Nairobi, Sub-Saharan Africa, Uhuru Kenyatta, Westgate

A memorial service will be held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, today (9 April) to commemorate the 148 students killed by Al-Shabaab last week. Kenyans are still in shock following the attack in the north-east of the country at Garissa University College on 2 April, where Christians were singled out . . . Read More

Al-Shabaab targets Christians in Kenyan college attack

  April 2, 2015 Kenya Al-Shabaab, Garissa, Kenya, Somalia

[<a href=”//storify.com/wwmonitor/attack-on-kenyan-college-singles-out-christians” target=”_blank”>View the story “Attack on Kenyan college singles out Christians” on Storify</a>]

Turkey’s Orthodox and Protestants mend centuries of mistrust

  April 1, 2015 Turkey Armenians, Assyrians, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Islamic State, Mardin, Protestants, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

On a Saturday in late March, a group of 20 volunteers went to an abandoned church in Turkey’s southeastern city of Mardin. They cleaned out broken chairs, a cracked pulpit, and books that haven’t been opened in decades. In the corner sat a 100-year-old organ. The church, in the heartland . . . Read More

Assyrian Christians flee jihadists to southeast Turkey

  March 27, 2015 Syria Armenians, Assyrians, Bashar al-Assad, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Khabur, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Qamishli, Syriacs, Turkey

A harsh Islamic State offensive begun in late February against Syria’s dwindling Assyrian Christian population is accelerating a steady trickle of Christian refugees trying desperately to reach safety in Turkey, northern Iraq and Lebanon. But their future is far from guaranteed as refugees in Muslim-majority Turkey, where according to Turkish . . . Read More

The man who talks to Boko Haram

  March 26, 2015 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Chibok girls, Gwoza, Kidnapping, Maiduguri, Nigeria, Pentecostals, Stephen Davis, Trauma

One year after the kidnapping of 232 Nigerian girls, Australian Stephen Davis still says his contacts indicate complicity among Nigerian politicians. A year ago April 14, Boko Haram kidnapped 275 girls from the government secondary school in the Christian-dominated town of Chibok, Borno State. Students reported to the Chibok Government Secondary . . . Read More

‘Are you ready to renounce your Christian faith?’

  March 25, 2015 Nigeria Boko Haram, Chad, Chibok girls, Damasak, Goodluck Jonathan, Niger, Nigeria, Potiskum

Anticipation of further violence as Nigeria begins voting for its next president is growing after the release of a new video shows Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau threatening that the election ‘will not happen in peace’. The chilling message will alarm Christians from Nigeria’s northern states who live in persistent . . . Read More

Delhi protest marks 300 days of BJP in India

  March 21, 2015 India Beef, Bihar, BJP, Maharashtra, Narendra Modi, Sangh Parivar

At a March 19 rally in New Delhi, Christian and Muslim activists unfurl a list of what they consider atrocities against religious minorities during the first 300 days of rule under India’s Bharatiya Janata Party.World Watch Monitor / Anto Akkara   Two dozen Christian and Muslim groups were joined by . . . Read More