News

New Erbil university offers fresh hope for young lives disrupted by IS

  March 30, 2017 Iraq Bashar Warda, Catholics, Education, IDPs, Iraq, Kurds, Minorities

Displaced young Iraqis whose education was halted by Islamic State’s violent seizure of territory are receiving a vital opportunity to catch up and train for professional life, thanks to the local Catholic archdiocese and charitable donations. The Catholic University of Erbil (CUE) opened in October 2016 and has around 250 . . . Read More

Opposition to Iraqi enclave for non-Muslims voiced by Erbil diocese

  March 30, 2017 Iraq Erbil, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Peshmerga, Saddam Hussein

The Catholic Church in northern Iraq has voiced its opposition to suggestions that an enclave should be created to safeguard non-Muslims fearful of returning to live among their Muslim neighbours. However Stephen Rasche, aid co-ordinator for the Catholic diocese of Erbil in northern Iraq, also said that the likelihood of . . . Read More

US missionary appeals to European Court of Human Rights over Russian law

  March 29, 2017 Russia Don Ossewaarde, Oryol, Pentecostals, Russia, Seventh-day Adventists, Yarovaya Law

UPDATE (29 March 2017) Today, Donald Ossewaarde filed an application to the European Court of Human Rights. The US Baptist preacher argues his right to religious freedom has been violated. Mr. Ossewaarde had held weekly Bible meetings at his home in the Russian city of Oryol, 300 kilometres south of Moscow, . . . Read More

Iranian converts: one needs urgent care, another denied chance to see mum with cancer

  March 27, 2017 Iran Converts, Ebrahim Firouzi, Evin Prison, Iran, Maryam Naghash Zargaran, Prisons

The health of Iranian Christian convert, Maryam Naghash Zargaran, continues to decline, sources told Mohabat News. It was reported that over the past week her condition worsened and she is again in need of urgent medical care. According to a prison mate, Zargaran is also suffering from severe weight loss. The stressful . . . Read More

Northeast Nigeria ‘greatest crisis on the African continent’, says UN

  March 27, 2017 Nigeria Adamawa, Boko Haram, Borno, Gwoza, IDPs, Yobe, Yola

The UN has described the unfolding disaster in north-eastern Nigeria as the “greatest crisis on the continent” – the full extent of which has only been revealed as extremist militant group Boko Haram is pushed back. The UN estimated in December that 75,000 children are at risk of dying of . . . Read More

‘Six weeks’ medicine and two months’ food for displaced Iraqi Christians’

  March 24, 2017 Iraq Bashar Warda, Erbil, Iraq, Saddam Hussein

The supplies sustaining displaced Christians in northern Iraq will run out “within weeks” but UN agencies, accused of ignoring them, have pledged to do better since the advent of US President Donald Trump, the aid co-ordinator for the Catholic archdiocese of Erbil said. Without significant financial aid and sufficient care, . . . Read More

Marbles in the midst of ashes: Iraqi boy returns home ‘post ISIS’

  March 23, 2017 Iraq Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Refugees

While the Iraqi military forces are pushing fighters of self-proclaimed Islamic State out of Mosul, their last stronghold, Foreign Ministers from 68 countries met yesterday in Washington to discuss next steps in defeating the militant group. They also discussed ‘post ISIS’ scenarios such as how to rebuild Mosul, as refugees start . . . Read More

Nepal’s Christians have to trek into mountains to bury their dead

  March 23, 2017 Nepal Burial, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu, Nepal

One way in which the freedom of religion or belief in a country can be measured is whether minorities are permitted to carry out their own rituals during key ‘rites of passage’ such as birth, marriage and death. One of the world’s fastest-growing Christian communities is that in Nepal. Between the censuses . . . Read More

Nigeria: Benue death toll 60 over past 10 days, admits police chief

  March 22, 2017 Nigeria Agatu, Benue, Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Nigeria, West Africa

”It all started on Friday when the herdsmen forcefully entered our village to graze on farmland, but were resisted by our youths. They left – only to mobilise and storm our village in their numbers, shooting sporadically and chasing everyone from their houses.” A survivor of a recent Fulani herdsmen’s . . . Read More

Uncertain future for Indian Christians after BJP’s election victories

  March 22, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Catholics, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand

India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have consolidated its political position across India after the party won several state elections. These were held in February and March; after results were counted in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur, it had secured a comfortable majority in India’s most populous . . . Read More