Tag: IDPs

To flee or not to flee?

November 17, 2017 Civil War, Converts, Egypt, IDPs, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Middle East, Migrants, Refugees, Syria

It is sometimes said that the Middle East is being denuded of Christians. Against this, church leaders throughout the Middle East urge Christians to remain in their country, or, where conflict makes that impossible, then to at least stay in the region. The emigration of Christians from the Middle East . . . Read More

Lives in limbo – Iraqi Christians’ long wait for asylum in Lebanon

November 8, 2017 Lebanon Armenians, Assyrians, Asylum seekers, Beirut, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Lebanon, Middle East, Refugees, Syria, Trauma, UN

Petros Babayan strains to sit up as if each bone of his paper-thin frame were heavy as iron. His wife Lydia and adult daughter Rita rush to help him. In their tiny rented apartment in Beirut, his single bed takes up a quarter of the room in which they live . . . Read More

Christians who fled IS displaced again as Iraqi and Kurdish forces clash

October 25, 2017 Iraq Alqosh, Bashiqa, Dohuk, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Nineveh Plains, Peshmerga, Tel Skuf

Fighting has erupted between Iraqi and Kurdish forces in a predominantly Christian town in northern Iraq, causing residents to flee. Around 900 families have fled Telskuf and its surrounding villages – part of the Nineveh Plains region of northern Iraq liberated last year from the Islamic State group – to . . . Read More

‘Prostitution is rife’ – sexual exploitation of Boko Haram survivors in IDP camps

September 1, 2017 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Cameroon, Divorce, IDPs, Maiduguri, Middle Belt, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria, Women

Thousands of Christians in north-east Nigeria displaced by Boko Haram’s insurgency now face discrimination and harsh treatment – including sexual exploitation – by government officials, reports Global Christian News (GCN). While many thousands have been killed, others sought refuge in neighbouring Cameroon or in the relatively safe states in the . . . Read More

DRC: grandmother forced to live in classroom after husband and friends murdered

August 22, 2017 Democratic Republic of the Congo ADF, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eringeti, IDPs, North Kivu, Oicha

When violence struck her village in North Kivu again Marie lost her husband and her home, and now lives with other refugees in a small mud class room in a school. (Photo: Open Doors International)

Marie, a 73-year-old Congolese woman, had lived in a war zone for two decades when rebels attacked her village in North Kivu province again, killing her husband and causing her to flee with her family to find shelter in a school. She thinks it was probably a year ago when . . . Read More

Displaced by Boko Haram’s violence, Nigerians finally get food to prevent famine

August 4, 2017 Nigeria Adamawa, Boko Haram, Borno, Christian Association of Nigeria, IDPs, Nigeria, UN, Yobe

Food aid has reached 15,000 families in Northeast Nigeria who live in famine-like conditions. (Photo: Open Doors International)

The current crisis in northeast Nigeria has been called the “greatest crisis on the African continent“. More than five million Nigerians live in famine-like conditions in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, the epicentre of the eight years-long Boko Haram insurgency. According to the World Food Programme, the ongoing insecurity has . . . Read More

Bishop in C. African Republic wants more effective UN peacekeepers after ‘failure to protect’

July 28, 2017 Central African Republic Anti-balaka, Bangassou, Bangui, Central African Republic, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, IDPs, Morocco, Nicolas Guérékoyamé-Gbangou, Oumar Kobine Layama, Seleka, UN

Bishop of Bangassou, (CAR), Juan José Aguirre Munoz (World Watch Monitor)

A bishop prevented by escalating violence from returning to his Central African Republic diocese has called for UN peacekeepers there to be replaced with a more effective defence force. Bishop Juan José Aguirre Munoz of Bangassou, who was speaking from the CAR capital, Bangui, also said the Moroccan troops are . . . Read More

Food aid starts to reach 5m Boko Haram victims, now at risk of famine

July 10, 2017 Nigeria Abuja, Boko Haram, Cameroon, IDPs, Jos, Lagos, Migrants, Refugees

15,000 families who are facing 'acute food insecurity' in northern Nigeria receive food aid. (Photo: Open Doors)

It’s been called the “greatest crisis on the African continent“. The UN’s World Food Programme in mid-June warned that hundreds of thousands of Nigerians could starve to death in the famine-threatened northeast due to lack of aid funds to feed them. It needs $172 million to help. Now the militants . . . Read More

Security not only concern for Syrians returning home

July 4, 2017 Syria Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, IDPs, Islamic State, Maaloula, Migrants, Refugees, Trauma, UN

As Islamic State forces are pushed back and more areas declared “safe”, Syrians are starting to return to their homes. According to the UN’s Refugee Agency (the UNHCR), nearly half a million have gone back since January. Around 440,000 internally displaced people, and more than 31,000 refugees who had fled . . . Read More

Thousands of Nigerian refugees forced back home to looming famine

June 30, 2017 Nigeria Adamawa, Boko Haram, Borno, Cameroon, Chad, IDPs, Niger, Refugees, UN, Yobe

Thousands of Nigerians who fled Boko Haram’s insurgency, and sought refuge in neighbouring Cameroon, have been forced back home, the UN said on 29 June, as Reuters reports. According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), some 887 Nigerians, most of them children, were repatriated against their will on 27 June alone. The . . . Read More

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