News

Six years on, justice thwarted in case of Pakistan’s murdered Shahbaz Bhatti

  March 3, 2017 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Pakistan Peoples Party, Paul Bhatti, Rawalpindi, Shahbaz Bhatti, Taliban

Six years on, justice for the murdered Pakistani Christian federal cabinet member Shahbaz Bhatti remains elusive, as does the social equality for which he gave his life. The Christian community says the Pakistani political leadership is not doing enough to ask the police and the judiciary to ensure his killers . . . Read More

Iraqi families urged to return and rebuild homes in Nineveh Plains

  March 3, 2017 Iraq Alqosh, Batnaya, Dohuk, IDPs, Islamic State, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Tel Skuf

The families of Nidal (left) and Janan (centre) recently returned home to the Christian town of Telskuf.Open Doors International   As the offensive against IS in western Mosul drives civilians out of the jihadists’ last Iraqi stronghold, residents of towns already liberated are returning home with their expectations high – . . . Read More

UPDATE: Son of abducted Malaysian pastor suspects he may have been murdered

  March 2, 2017 Malaysia Converts, Hudud, Kuala Lumpur, PAS, Petaling Jaya, Raymond Koh, Selangor

Pastor Koh, still missing after being abducted on 13 February, is now feared dead.Change.org   More than two weeks since the abduction of Malaysian Christian pastor, Raymond Koh, his son has filed a second police report on suspicion that his father has been murdered, reports Free Malaysia Today. Jonathan Koh . . . Read More

Egyptian Copt widow: ‘Gunmen who killed my husband and son then ticked them off their IS hit-list’

  March 2, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Bishop Angaelos, Cairo, Copts, El-Arish, Islamic State, Ismailia, Sinai, Suez

A Coptic Christian mother in North Sinai who saw her son and husband killed in front of her in their home says she then saw the gunman calmly tick off her loved ones from a hit-list he carried. In an exclusive interview with World Watch Monitor, Nabila Fawzi Hanna, 65, . . . Read More

As Nigerian government resorts to curfew in S. Kaduna, locals blame ‘years of impunity’

  February 28, 2017 Nigeria Fulani herdsmen, Kaduna, Kafanchan

In northern Nigeria, a 24-hour curfew has been reinstated in parts of southern Kaduna, following the deadly attacks a week ago, carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen. However, locals say security measures such as this have already proved ineffective, as recent attacks have happened despite them.   The attacks on 19 . . . Read More

Islamic extremism causing fresh concerns in the Philippines

  February 27, 2017 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Islamic State, Manila, Mindanao, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Rodrigo Duterte, Seventh-day Adventists, Southeast Asia

Christians in the Philippines are concerned at a rise in Islamic extremism in the country. A local church leader, who wished to remain anonymous, told World Watch Monitor about a recent meeting of around 3,000 Islamists on one island – the name of which he wouldn’t say, for fear of . . . Read More

Czech shared Sudan prison cell with Islamic State convicts who beat him up and abused him

  February 27, 2017 Sudan Abdulmonem Abdumawla, Hassan Taour, Khartoum, Omar al-Bashir, Petr Jašek, Sudan

A Czech Christian aid worker, freed from prison in Sudan on 26 Feb, has spoken of how the prison authorities treated him. “The first two months were probably the most severe for me because I was placed in a cell together with members of the Islamic State, who humiliated me . . . Read More

UPDATE: Kidnapped German archeologists freed; no ransom paid

  February 27, 2017 Nigeria Abuja, Fulani herdsmen, Kaduna, Kafanchan, Lagos, Middle Belt, West Africa

In the village of Goska, houses were destroyed, churches burnt and shops vandalised in a December attack.World Watch Monitor   UPDATE (27 Feb): Two German archaeologists kidnapped in Nigeria’s north-western state of Kaduna were freed on Saturday (25 Feb). Peter Breunig and Johannes Buringer were taken by gunmen on 22 . . . Read More

Four months on, no word on US missionary kidnapped in Niger

  February 27, 2017 Niger Abalak, Ansar Dine, Jeff Woodke, MUJAO, Niamey, Tuareg

Jeff Woodke is known in Abalak for his devotion to Niger and its nomadic populations.Jeff Woodke / Facebook   UPDATE (27 Feb 2017) It’s been more than four months since a pioneering American missionary was kidnapped in Niger. Jeff Woodke, who worked for Jeunesse en Mission Entraide et Developpement, was . . . Read More

UPDATE: Czech aid worker freed to fly to Prague after his Foreign Minister visits Sudan

  February 26, 2017 Sudan Abdulmonem Abdumawla, Hassan Taour, Khartoum, Kuwa Shamal, Petr Jašek

UPDATE (26 Feb) A Czech aid worker, Petr Jašek, 52, detained in Sudan since December 2015, has been pardoned and freed by President Omar Bashir – after the Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaorálek visited Sudan this weekend to seek his release. He has flown back to Prague with the Foreign Minister today (Sunday . . . Read More