RLPB 712. September Update incl. Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Iran, Mozambique, Uganda

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 712 | Wed 27 Sep 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

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SEPTEMBER 2023 UPDATE & ROUNDUP
By Elizabeth Kendal

UPDATE: DURING SEPTEMBER WE PRAYED CONCERNING

AZERBAIJAN AND SUDAN [RLPB 709 (6 Sept)], as Armenian Christians in Azerbaijan’s besieged Nagorno-Karabakh, and Nuba Christians in Sudan’s war-ravaged South Kordofan, faced the prospect of starvation.

UPDATE AZERBAIJAN: On Tuesday 19 September Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan launched what it called an ‘anti-terror’ operation in its Armenian Christian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K). Prior to the offensive Azerbaijan already controlled the high ground of Susha (which overlooks the capital Stepanakurt) and it had already closed the Lachin Corridor, the only road linking N-K to Armenia. So, when the shelling started and Azeri troops advanced, there was little N-K’s exposed, vulnerable and half-starved Armenian civilians could do but bunker down in their basements and wait for the end.

On Wednesday 20 September, after 24 hours of terror – during which five Russian peacekeepers and at least 200 ethnic Armenians were killed – N-K’s ethnic Armenian government agreed to a Russian-brokered cease-fire. The terms of the ceasefire require N-K Armenian Christians enter into talks on demilitarisation and ‘reintegration’ into Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan. On Friday 22 September Moscow confirmed that N-K’s defence forces had started surrendering their weapons and that the process would continue through the weekend with the help of Russian peacekeepers.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov assured the UN General Assembly: ‘Azerbaijan is determined to reintegrate ethnic Armenian residents of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as equal citizens.’ Having enduring centuries of persecution and genocide, no ethnic Armenian believes that. By Sunday 24 September a mass exodus of Armenians was underway, eager to escape ethno-religious persecution and ethnic cleansing. They leave behind their homes, farms and businesses, along with hundreds of ancient churches and monasteries (many dating back to the 10th Century and some even earlier) and a land – Artsakh – that has been Armenian for millennia.

David Babayan, an adviser to N-K’s President Samvel Shahramanyan, told Reuters he expected almost everyone to leave. He said: 'Armenians do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan – 99.9 percent prefer to leave our historic lands. The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a disgrace and a shame for the Armenian people and for the whole civilised world. Those responsible for our fate will one day have to answer before God for their sins.’ (See Proverbs 24:12)

Everyone knew this day was coming: see RLPB 575, Genocide Postponed? 11 Nov 2020. Going forward, threats include: (1) ‘cultural erasure’ [see RLPB 577 (25 Nov 2020) and Cornell University College of Arts and Science (21 Sept 2023), ‘Hundreds of Armenian heritage sites at risk in Nagorno-Karabakh’, ]; (2) the territorial integrity of Armenia, as Turkey and Azerbaijan prepare to move on Syunik (Armenia’s southern-most province) [see RLPB 591, Armenia-Azerbaijan: new war looms, 31 March 2021, and Reuters (26 Sept 2023),  ‘Azerbaijani and Turkish leaders hold talks, eye land corridor via Armenia’ … ‘whether Armenia likes it or not’]. Lord have mercy!

NEPAL [RLPB 710 (13 Sep)], where Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) activists and political parties are exploiting the current political chaos and paralysis to advance the Hindutva cause. This is resulting in a marked escalation in violent persecution of Nepal’s rapidly growing Church. Please pray.

NIGERIA [RLPB 711 (20 Sep)], after more massacres – the aim of which is ethno-religious cleansing for the purpose of Fulani expansion – were reported in southern Kaduna and north-west Plateau.

UPDATE: (other September reports from Morning Star News)

Kaduna: Seminary student
Na’aman Danlami
(Aid to the Church in Need)

KADUNA (North West Region): On Thursday night 7 September gunmen attacked the rectory of St Raphael’s Catholic Church in Fadan Kamantan, in southern Kaduna’s terror-ravaged Zangon Kataf LGA. Intending to kidnap the parish priest, Rev. Emmanuel Okolo, the terrorists attempted to gain entry to the priest’s residence. When that failed, they set fire to the property. Whilst Rev Okolo and his assistant managed to escape, seminary student Na’aman Danlami (25) was trapped; he perished in the flames.

TARABA (North East Region): At around 2am on Sunday 10 September terrorists invaded the Mile Six area of Jalingo, the capital, located in the state’s north. A source in the area told ChannelsTV (10 Sept) that the assailants operated for hours, moving from one house to the other without interference by security operatives. The kidnappers have demanded ransom. The killings came just days after two Christians were killed and at least six kidnapped on the Takum Road in the state’s south-west.

PLATEAU (North Central Region): Before dawn on Wednesday 13 September gunmen invaded Maigyemu community, Jos East LGA. They broke into the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) compound in Nuku village and kidnapped the Reverend Usman Umaru from his residence. Two other Christians were also abducted.

NASARAWA (North Central Region): On Wednesday morning 20 September Muslim Fulani militants attacked Kola village, in Nasarawa state’s Akwanga LGA, killing one Christian, wounding three others – including Baptist pastor, the Rev. Thomas Wakayi – and displacing all residents.

Please pray for the Church in Nigeria’s Islamic North and jihad-wracked mixed Middle Belt.


SEPTEMBER 2023 ROUND-UP – ALSO THIS MONTH

* IRAN: ARMENIANS FREE TO WORSHIP, BUT NOT IN PERSIAN.
- worship in Persian (language) or witness to Muslims and you’ll go to jail!

(1) Ethnic Armenian Iranian Pastor Joseph Shahbazian was arrested on 30 June 2020 when agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps raided his house church gathering in Tehran [RLPB 557 (8 July 2020)]. He was sentenced in June 2022 to 10 years in prison to be followed by two years internal exile for ‘founding or leading an organisation that aims to disrupt national security’. However, in February 2023 the Supreme Court granted him a retrial and in May his sentence was reduced to two years. Then, on the evening of 13 September, Pastor Joseph Shahbazian (59) was summoned to the Evin Prison office and informed that he had been pardoned and was free to leave prison and return to his family, including his first grandchild, born while he was incarcerated. Thank-you Lord!

(2) Ethnic Armenian Iranian believer Anooshavan Avedian was arrested on 21 August 2020 when agents from the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) raided a prayer gathering in his home in north-east Tehran. He was sentenced in April 2022 to 10 years in prison, to be followed by 10 years ‘deprivation of social rights’, for ‘establishing and leading an illegal group with the aim of disrupting the security of the country through educational and propaganda activities, contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam, through the dissemination of false claims’. His appeal in May 2022 was not successful. On Wednesday 13 September 2023, Anooshavan Avedian (61) entered prison to commence his 10-year jail term. May the Lord intervene for Anooshavan Avedian as he did for Joseph Shahbazian. In the meantime, may the Lord protect, sustain and comfort him. Please pray.

* MOZAMBIQUE: MASSACRE IN NAQUITENGE

Map showing location of
Mocímboa da Praia (far north).
(Click on map to enlarge)
map source: worldometers

At around 3pm on Friday 15 September local militants affiliated with Islamic State invaded the village of Naquitenge village in the district of Mocímboa da Praia in Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado. Sources told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the militants first summoned all the residents to a meeting. Once the residents had gathered, the militants then proceeded to separate the Christians from the Muslims. Then, according to missionary Friar Boaventura from the Institute of the Fraternity of the Poor of Jesus, ‘They opened fire on the Christians, riddling them with bullets.’ At least eleven Christians were killed in the attack, and many more were left seriously wounded; homes were burned and property was destroyed. Islamic State has claimed responsibility. The attack comes as displaced residents were starting to return to their homes, and a month after Mozambique forces reportedly killed Bonomade Machude Omar, the leader of the Islamic State group in Mozambique. Having ambushed a detachment of soldiers, Omar and his fellow jihadists were killed in the subsequent firefight. Please pray for Mozambique (estimated to be 62 percent Christian) and for the imperilled Church in jihad-wracked Cabo Delgado.

* UGANDA: ANOTHER EVANGELIST MURDERED

On Wednesday 6 September evangelists Philip Bere and Mudenya Sirasi participated in an evangelistic event in Eastern Uganda’s Kituuti town. According to Sirasi, many people accepted Christ, including Muslim women and two young Muslim men. About 7:40pm, as the evangelists travelled home to Katiryo, they were ambushed by Muslims angry about the conversions. Bere was struck and pulled from the bicycle as Sirasi fell but escaped into a tunnel under a bridge. Captured, Philip Bere (33) was subsequently bashed to death with a large rock. The pastor of Bere’s church told Morning Star News that police in Katiryo, Kibuku District, took statements about the killing and assured him they were searching for the killers. The pastor laments: ‘Our evangelist was killed because of his passion for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, especially to Muslims.’ Apparently Bere was well-known for his preaching among Muslims in Buseeta, Lwatama, Katiryo and other parts in eastern Uganda. Please pray.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 664. September Update, incl. Mozambique, Armenia-Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 664 | Wed 28 Sep 2022
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

To donate, or sign up for the RLPB visit www.ElizabethKendal.com
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

SEPTEMBER 2022 UPDATE
By Elizabeth Kendal

DURING THIS PERIOD, WE PRAYED CONCERNING:

* PAPUA, INDONESIA [RLPB 661 (7 Sept)], after the Indonesian government added three new administrative divisions into Papua Province against the will of the indigenous ethnic Melanesian, predominantly Christian Papuans. The Papuans suspect the further carving up of their lands will result in more Indonesian military bases, more exploitation of natural resources, more Javanese Muslim troops and settlers/colonisers, more Papuan displacement, more Islamisation, and more human rights abuses. In short, they fear it will hasten the Papuan genocide. Please pray.

* MOZAMBIQUE [RLPB 662 (14 Sept)], where Islamic State jihadists have regrouped after their August 2021 defeat in Mocimboa da Praia and returned to offensive jihad. In September the jihadists struck three times in two districts of Nampula Province, south of Cabo Delgado, including the deadly sacking of the expansive Catholic mission in Chipene. Acknowledging the complexity of the conflict, the RLPB concluded with this warning: ‘Only by addressing the issues at the root of Muslim disaffection in Cabo Delgado – the site of massive oil and gas deposits – can the government make a lie of the victimhood narrative used by Islamists to recruit youths into jihad.’

UPDATE: RELIGIOUS LEADERS SPEAK OUT

Msgr Juliasse Ferreira Sandramo,
Bishop of Pemba, Cabo Delgado.

Maputo-based Methodist Bishop Dinis Matsolo is regarded as one of the most prominent religious voices in Mozambique. At a conference on 12 September, he told the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that it would be a great mistake if people started believing the problem in Cabo Delgado could be solved by military means alone. The bishop proposed an inter-religious dialogue where leaders of different faiths would demonstrate solidarity in the fight against terrorism. Msgr Juliasse Ferreira Sandramo is the Catholic Bishop of Pemba, in terrorist-infested Cabo Delgado. He likewise warns: ‘The response to jihadists cannot be solely military but it is necessary to give hope to young people who would otherwise be tempted to recruit into jihadist ranks.’ Msgr Sandramo also expressed alarm over the decline in humanitarian aid to Mozambique from the World Food Program since the start of the war in Ukraine, warning: ‘The end of aid puts more than 850,000 displaced people at risk [of starvation].’ He stressed that Mozambique needs to remain a global priority, saying, ‘There can be no first and second-class victims.’ AMEN. Please pray.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God (Matthew 5:9 NIV).

* UGANDA [RLPB 663 (21 Sept)], where ‘Islamic radicalisation and guaranteed impunity have combined to make Uganda an increasingly dangerous place for Christian evangelists, apologists and converts from Islam.’ The impunity is especially shocking when one considers that Uganda is roughly 84 percent Christian with a Christian president (who appears to have lost his way), and a constitution which guarantees religious liberty. A product of corruption, impunity equals permission and is gross injustice; it emboldens criminal Islamists. The trajectory is not good! Please pray.


SEPTEMBER 2022 ROUND-UP - also this month:

* ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN: NEARLY 300 DEAD; TENSIONS SOARING

Map showing the shelling of Armenian territory
from Sokt in the north to Goris in the south.
https://caucasus.liveuamap.com/

Clashes erupted along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in the early hours of Tuesday 13 September, ending late on 14 September after international mediation. By then, 202 Armenian and 80 Azerbaijani soldiers were dead and many more were wounded. Five Armenian civilians are either dead or missing and at least six are wounded. Some 7600 Armenians have fled their homes. Each state has blamed each other for the clashes. However, as the Armenian Defence Ministry reports, all the fighting took place on Armenian soil as Azerbaijan launched intensive rocket and artillery strikes and loitering munitions against Armenian positions and civilian settlements ‘along the entire border from Sotk to Goris’. Azerbaijan has even occupied some 10 sq km (4 sq miles) of Armenian land.

On 22 September, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan used his address before the United Nations to accuse Azerbaijan of ‘unspeakable atrocities’, including torture and mutilating the bodies of dead soldiers. ‘No doubt, committing such unspeakable atrocities is a direct result of a decades-long policy of implanting anti-Armenian hatred and animosity in the Azerbaijani society by the political leadership.’ On 23 September the sides blamed each other for overnight ceasefire violations. While a new road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K) has been opened, there are concerns this road, built by Azerbaijan, is not merely dangerous, but it might not even be passable in winter. Now that the Lachin Corridor (along with its Armenian villages) is in the hands of Azerbaijan, the new road is now the only link between Armenia and the ethnic Armenian ‘island’ of N-K [RFE/RL 3:17 min video (29 June)]. Tensions are soaring, and the risk of renewed conflict is high. Please pray.

* EGYPT: SHARIA LAW RIPS APART CHRISTIAN FAMILY
- draft law now up for debate

Shenouda (centre) and his adoptive parents.
source: wataninet.com

A case of cruel discrimination has gone viral on Egyptian social media, stimulating debate, arousing grassroots outrage and attracting lawyers to the Christian cause. Four years ago, a Coptic priest found a newborn baby boy abandoned inside his church. He handed the infant into the care of a devout couple from his congregation – a childless couple who for 29 years had never ceased praying for a miracle. Eventually the couple embraced the child as a gift from God. He was baptised, named Shenouda, and granted a birth certificate in the family’s name: Boulos. However, adoption is illegal in Islam; and because Egyptian law must comply with Sharia (Islamic law), adoption is illegal in Egypt [see Coptic Solidarity (6 Sept)].

In February, when the authorities were informed of the illegal adoption [see Wataninet.com (4 Sept) for details], they seized the child and transferred him to an orphanage. According to Islam, all human beings are born Muslim. Consequently, even though the infant was abandoned inside a church – doubtless indicating the mother’s wishes – a Christian cannot be entrusted with the care of that ‘Muslim’ child. The state has given Shenouda a new birth certificate with a Muslim name and Muslim legal identity and banned his Christian adoptive parents from seeing him. Understandably, everyone is distraught. However, as Fides reports (17 September): ‘The controversial case of an abandoned child entrusted to a Coptic Christian family reopens the debate in Egypt on the draft [‘personal status’] law [as it relates] to the personal status of Christians and family law, a project long presented to Parliament, which lies awaiting approval.’ Grassroots support for the Boulos family is growing, and lawyers are lining up to defend the Christian cause. Please pray.

MURDER IN SINAI: On 30 August terrorists, believed to be Islamic State, shot dead two Coptic farmers – namely Salama Moussa Waheeb and his son Hany (40) – as they worked in their fields in the Gelbana area of al-Qantara Sharq in mid-west Sinai. The elder Waheeb was a father to five children, two sons and three daughters; while Hany leaves behind a wife and two daughters. Please pray for Egypt’s imperilled, remnant indigenous Christian Copts.

* INDONESIA: THE LIE OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE

Map showing location of Cilegon.
click on map to enlarge.

Cilegon is a major industrial coastal city in Banten Province, West Java. The city has 382 mosques and 287 other Muslim prayer rooms but no places of worship for other religions. According to the 2010 national census, nine percent of the city’s population of around 375,000 were Christians (i.e. some 33,750); yet even today the city does not have a single church building. The Batak Christian Protestant Church’s (HKBP’s) Maranatha church was founded in 1999 and has 3,903 members who each Sunday make a 40 km round trip to meet in Serang. On 7 September a group of Muslims calling themselves the Cilegon City Local Wisdom Defender Committee, protested in Cilegon demanding the Maranatha church be denied permission to construct a church in Grogol district. They visited Cilegon Mayor Helldy Agustian in his office and pressured him to sign a petition to ban the proposed construction of the Maranatha church. Indonesian Jakarta-based human rights watchdog Imparsial slammed the decision as an ‘unconstitutional move’ and act of discrimination against the city’s minority Christians.

On 16 September Al-Khairiya (another Muslim organisation based in Cilegon) filed lawsuits against Yaqut Cholil Qoumas (Gus Yaqut) – the Minister of Religious Affairs in President Joko Widodo’s government – and Maranatha church’s leaders and construction committee over public statements they made on the matter. Gus Yaqut had scorned the mayor’s decision and labelled the city ‘intolerant’.

As an editorial in the Jakarta Post notes (14 September): ‘The Cilegon government’s refusal to allow a church in the steel town of Banten province does not bode well for Indonesia’s reputation as it prepares to host a major international meeting to discuss peaceful coexistence between religious communities around the world. The Religion 20 (R20) Forum scheduled for November 2 & 3 in Bali is part of the activities of Indonesia’s Group of 20 presidency this year, which will culminate with the G20 Summit in mid-November. R20 will bring in top religious leaders from around the world to discuss problems and grievances in interfaith relations around the world, according to its organisers. If the intention is to showcase Indonesia’s interfaith relations, then the Cilegon church controversy will undermine that claim… The denial is clearly in violation of the Constitution… the central government must intervene…’ As the editorial notes, ‘Cilegon is not an isolated incident’ and if the government cannot find a solution, then it ‘should prepare to face a major embarrassment at the R20.’ Please pray.

* PAKISTAN: PLAYING THE RELIGION CARD FOR POLITICAL GAIN
- an update to RLPB 660, August Update, 31 Aug 2022

On 8 September the Election Commission of Pakistan postponed by-elections due to be held in 13 constituencies of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 11 and 25 September and 2 October, because of floods. These by-elections form the immediate context for the marked escalation in rabid anti-Ahmadiyya political rhetoric. As former Prime Minister Imran Khan makes his comeback, both the government and Khan’s party (PTI) are courting the votes of fundamentalist Muslims. Mian Javed Latif, a Federal Minister, told media that Imran Khan ‘betrayed the basic principles of Islam’ by promising Western governments that Ahmadiyyas ‘will be given religious freedom’. Khan’s party responded by hailing Khan’s unimpeachable Islamic credentials. It is horrific to think that in Pakistan today populism entails spewing hatred of religious minorities while accusing your opposition of not being intolerant enough. And hate speech has consequences! On 22 August vandals desecrated 16 graves belonging to Ahmadiyya Muslims in a walled communal graveyard in Chak 203 RB Manawala, Punjab’s Faisalabad. On Friday 23 September a school in Punjab’s Attock district expelled four Ahmadiyya students simply for their ‘heretical’ belief that Muhammad was not Allah’s final prophet. This trend bodes ill for Pakistan’s religious minorities, including her long-persecuted vulnerable minority Christians. Please pray.

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FOR MORE NEWS – particularly on the endless stream of violent persecution in President Buhari’s Nigeria and Prime Minister Modi’s India – RLPB recommends Morning Star News.

OCTOBER IN CHINA: With the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) beginning on Sunday 16 October, next month’s RLPBs will focus on prayer for China.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church.

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

The RLPB is a donor-funded ministry. For more information on Elizabeth's books, global persecution, or how to provide financial support, please visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 662. Mozambique: Jihad Resumes; Catholic Mission Targeted

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 662 | Wed 14 Sep 2022
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com
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MOZAMBIQUE: JIHAD RESUMES; CATHOLIC MISSION TARGETED
By Elizabeth Kendal

Sister Maria (front right)

Late on the night of Tuesday 6 September, Islamic jihadists attacked the Catholic mission in Chipene city, Memba District, in northern Mozambique’s Nampula Province. They burned much of the mission, including the church, the hospital, the primary and secondary schools, the dormitory and the new computer room. Four Christians were killed in the attack, including Sister Maria De Coppi (84), a nun with the Comboni order who had been living a life of service in Mozambique since 1963. Hoping to reach the dormitory to alert the students, Sister Maria ran out into what must have seemed like a war zone. The terrorists saw her and killed her with a shot to her head. Two other nuns escaped to raise the alarm. Six people were beheaded and three were abducted. Islamic State claimed responsibility and explained in a statement posted to Telegram, that they killed the nun because she was ‘too committed to spreading Christianity’. As His Exc. Msgr. Inacio Saure, Archbishop of Nampula remarked, ‘If the statement is authentic, then Sister Maria is truly a martyr for the faith.’

Twelve months ago, after nearly four years of jihad, the situation in northern Mozambique seemed to have turned a corner. Two years ago, in August 2020, the jihadists seized control of Mocimboa da Praia, a port city in Cabo Delgado Province in Mozambique’s majority Muslim far north. Discovered in 2010, the gas fields off the coast of Cabo Delgado are the third largest proven gas reserves in Africa after Nigeria and Algeria. The jihad – which erupted in October 2017 – could derail Mozambique’s economic development and destabilise the wider region. Consequently, in June 2021, the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) approved the deployment of troops to Mozambique to help combat the increasingly sophisticated Islamic insurgency [RLPB 543 (1 April 2020)]. By 8 August 2021 Rwandan and Mozambican troops had liberated Mocimboa da Praia. Four days later the governor of Cabo Delgado declared the city safe, even as SADC continued its counter-terror operations across the country’s north [RLPB 612 (25 Aug 2021)].

click on map to enlarge.
Green underlines:
districts attacked through August.
Red circles: districts attacked
on 2,4 and 6 September.
Original map source

By August 2022, the jihadists had regrouped and relaunched their campaign. Their strategy has been to conduct hit-and-run raids on undefended villages across multiple districts to keep the military and police off-balance. On 19 August Islamic State released videos from both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, in which jihadists in each country call for attacks on Christians and warn that jihad will continue until Islamic Sharia Law is applied and non-Muslims pay the jizya/tax (protection money for the right to life; Quran Sura 9:29). In early September the jihadist pushed further south than ever before, attacking communities in Nampula Province, south of Cabo Delgado. On Friday night 2 September, the jihadists attacked the village of Kutua in Erati District. On Sunday 4 September they attacked the village of Naminhanha in Memba District. On Tuesday night 6 September they attacked the Catholic mission in Chipene, which is also in Memba District; four Christians were killed, six victims were beheaded, three others were abducted, the expansive Catholic mission and dozens of homes were torched and thousands more citizens were displaced.

On Thursday 8 September the European Union – which is desperate to find alternative sources of gas – offered financial support of 15 million euros to the SADC Mission in Mozambique. While the crisis is complex and multi-layered, most Mozambicans insist that Islamic radicalisation – courtesy of fundamentalist Salafi/Wahhabi preachers – plays a major part. A detailed background which unpacks the ethnic, religious, historical, political, and economic context of the jihad in northern Mozambique can be found on Religious Liberty Monitoring, ‘Mozambique: A Crisis in the Making,’ 13 May 2020. Only by addressing the issues at the root of Muslim disaffection in Cabo Delgado can the government make a lie of the victimhood narrative used by Islamists to recruit youths into jihad.


PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL

* protect vulnerable Christians, churches and Christian ministries and missions across northern Mozambique as the jihadists relaunch their terror with a vengeance; may the Lord comfort and sustain the believers in Chipene, especially those connected to the Catholic mission based there. Lord have mercy!

* grace Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi with wisdom, discernment and courage to tackle the issues at the root of Muslim disaffection in the remote north – everything from injustice and marginalisation to radicalisation; may peace return to northern Mozambique.

* intervene in Mozambique to guide and assist the African counter-terrorism forces for the sake of the Church, the Gospel, and every Mozambican who desires harmony and freedom. Lord have mercy!

* move powerfully in Mozambique’s Church that she might rise to the occasion presented to her to be prayerful, generous and active – compelled by sacrificial love of neighbour; may believers reach out to assist not only their fellow believers, but all who are displaced and traumatised across the north – including hundreds of thousands of traumatised, peace-seeking Muslim families. May the Lord be pleased to use his Church to redeem this crisis for his glory.

‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective’ (James 5:16b NIV).


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
------------------------------------------
MOZAMBIQUE: JIHAD RESUMES; CATHOLIC MISSION TARGETED

Having regrouped, Islamic State jihadists are again terrorising northern Mozambique. On 19 August Islamic State released a video calling for attacks on Christians in Mozambique and warning that jihad will continue until Islamic Sharia Law is applied and non-Muslims pay the jizya/tax (protection money). On 6 September they attacked the Catholic mission in Chipene city, Memba District, Nampula Province – further south than ever before. Four Christians were killed, including Sister Maria De Coppi (84), a nun who had served in Mozambique since 1963. Jihadists claimed they shot her in the head because she was ‘too committed to spreading Christianity’. Six people were beheaded and three were abducted. The mission’s church, hospital, primary and secondary schools, dormitories and new computer lab were burned, as were dozens of homes. Everyone is traumatised. Please pray.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com.

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information visit: www.ElizabethKendal.com 

RLPB 612. August Update, incl. North Koreans, Afghanistan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cuba, India, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan.

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 612 | Wed 25 Aug 2021
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

To subscribe (free) or view archives, visit the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog. The RLPB is sponsored by Christian Faith and Freedom Inc. 

AUGUST 2021 UPDATE
By Elizabeth Kendal

DURING THIS PERIOD, WE PRAYED CONCERNING:

* NORTH KOREA [RLPB 609 (4 Aug)]. after North Korea's Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in agreed to restore communications and take steps to recover trust and improve ties. The rapprochement comes as North Korea faces its most severe humanitarian crisis in decades. We also prayed concerning 'Advocacy for North Koreans Detained in China', after China repatriated some 50 North Korean escapees, each of whom will face severe punishment.

UPDATE: CHINA ARRESTS NORTH KOREAN WIVES

Radio Free Asia reports (RFA, 20 Aug) that Chinese police have started arresting North Korean wives of Chinese men in Liaoning and Jilin, two provinces in north-eastern China which border North Korea (NK). NKs have been escaping into China for decades and many NK women have married Chinese men - some by force (up to 80 percent, having fallen prey to sex-traffickers) and some by choice, be that pragmatism or true love. One Chinese citizen in Tonghua City (90km north of the NK border in Jilin Province) told RFA about the arrest of a NK woman who arrived in Tonghua 10 years ago, who was married to and had a child with a Chinese man. This 'kind-hearted' woman had spent many years helping and serving 'everyone in the neighbourhood, not only [NK] refugees'. Locals in Tonghua are so upset about this woman's arrest - which has left the couple's nine-year-old child distraught - that they have petitioned the police for her release. While no further details are known about this woman, we do know the border provinces are rich in Christian presence. Many Chinese and Korean Christians chose to live and work there precisely so they might help and witness to NK refugees. It seems the NKs - even those with Chinese husbands and children - now risk being arrested, separated from their families, charged with human trafficking and repatriated to North Korea. Please pray.

REALITY CHECK: If the West cannot find a way to work with NK's other neighbours - South Korea and Russia - to draw and lead NK in a different direction, then Communist Party-ruled China will simply devour it. Please pray!

* CHINA [RLPB 610 (11 Aug)] where two courageous and influential unregistered house churches in Taiyuan (the capital of Shanxi Province) are experiencing severe and escalating persecution. Please continue to pray for Xuncheng Reformed Church and the Golden Lampstand house-church network as they navigate the increasingly treacherous path ahead and deal with the arrests of senior church leaders.

* ETHIOPIA [RLPB 611 (18 Aug)] after the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - now going by the name, Tigray Defense Force (TDF) - rejected the government's unilateral ceasefire (forced on it by the US Biden administration) and advanced their war beyond Tigray. The TPLF has since killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands in neighbouring Afar and Amhara Regions. It has also disrupted the delivery of, and stolen (for its soldiers), humanitarian aid. The TPLF has forcibly recruited hundreds of child soldiers, making a lot of enemies in the process! Critically it has brokered an alliance with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA or OLF-Shane, the group responsible for numerous massacres of Amhara Christians throughout Oromia including hundreds of forcibly recruited child soldiers). These two groups - both enemies of Ethiopia - could neither survive nor advance their genocidal campaign without the foreign support they receive from Egypt, the Sudanese military and Washington. Now the ceasefire is over, the TPLF-OLA will move to escalate their anti-government propaganda. Indeed, this has already begun! Please pray.

Ethiopia is a phenomenally strategic country, both geo-politically (for the Horn of Africa and the greater Middle East) and spiritually (with its dynamic Church and great missionary-sending vision). Ethiopia's collapse would trigger a Christian crisis of monumental proportions. This is first and foremost a spiritual battle. The future of Ethiopia hangs in the balance. Please pray.

AUGUST 2021 ROUND-UP - also this month:

* AFGHANISTAN: CHRISTIANS IMPERILLED
[update to RLPB 600 (2 June 2021)].

Global Catalytic Ministries - an organisation which supports underground churches in Islamic countries - has released a video in which an Afghan Christian pleads for Christians around the world not to abandon the Church in Afghanistan. Clearly fearful and distraught, our brother laments: 'All of our work over the past 20 years has been lost overnight,' adding that he feels like the 'whole world has abandoned us.' International Christian Concern (ICC) estimates the Christian population at between 10,000 and 12,000. An Afghan Christian leader told ICC that while he does not think any Christians have been executed yet, it is simply just a matter of time, especially as some believers have already received threatening phone calls warning, 'We are coming for you.' As he explained: 'It will be done mafia style. The Taliban will never take responsibility for the killings.'

Another Afghan Church leader - who estimates the Christian community at 5,000 to 8,000 - warned CBN that the Taliban will move to 'eliminate the Christian population'. Christians will now either hide or flee. That said, they have long been 'sheep among wolves', and as Andrew Boyd of Release International UK reminds us, 'they are used to being an underground church; they are used to working under the most intense pressure and persecution'. Christian aid and advocacy groups which serve the persecuted Church are raising funds and doing all they can to help and support gravely imperilled Afghan believers. God calls us to action: so 'speak up', 'give generously', and pray, pray, pray!

* THE SAHEL: AFRICA'S AFGHANISTAN?
[update to RLPB 607 (21 July 2021)].

As noted in RLPB 607, French troops will pull out of Mali in the first quarter of 2022, ahead of France's presidential election. On 10 August, as the Taliban closed in on Kabul, Iyad Ag Ghali - leader of al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM - paid tribute to the 'Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on the occasion of the withdrawal of the American invading forces and their allies.' After the Taliban captured Kabul, a headline in the Malian daily Le Soir de Bamako asked: 'Should we brace for the same scenario as in Kabul?' The mostly Muslim Sahel is a religious fault-line region. Until now it has been spared the Islamic radicalisation common across North Africa. Today, the Sahel's many churches and mission-run facilities and its tradition of religious tolerance and openness are all imminently imperilled.

(1) MALI: TERROR ESCALATES
Mali: a secular state with religious freedom; 87 percent Muslim, 2.6 percent Christian.

On Sunday evening 8 August jihadists attacked several villages in the Gao region 'shooting at anything that moved'. Along with killing at least 51 people, the jihadists also looted and burned homes and stole herds of livestock. On 19 August jihadists ambushed a military convoy in central Mali, killing 15 soldiers. According to Mohamed Dicko, a 24-year-old medical student in the capital Bamako, it is only thanks to French and UN forces that 'the major cities in the north are still under state control. Without the presence of the French army,' he said, 'a town like Gao can fall in less than half an hour.' Some in Mali are calling for the government to negotiate with the terrorists to find a political solution. But like the Taliban, JNIM would surely accept nothing less than total submission to Islam. Mali is in trouble! Please pray.

(2) BURKINA FASO: TERROR ESCALATES
Burkina Faso: secular state with religious freedom; 52 percent Muslim, 21 percent Christian.

On 18 August jihadists in northern Burkina Faso attacked a civilian convoy as it was being escorted by military police on the road between Gorgadji and Arbinda. The attack left 80 people dead, including 59 civilians, 15 soldiers and six members of the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP) corps, an anti-jihadist civilian defence militia that co-operates with the government to protect communities. A further 19 people were wounded and 58 jihadists were also killed. It was the third major attack on Burkinabe soldiers in the past two weeks. On 4 August jihadists killed 11 civilians, 15 soldiers and four volunteer militia members in attacks on northern villages near the border with Niger. On 8 August jihadists killed 12 soldiers in an attack on the Toeni commune near the border with Mali. Burkina Faso is in trouble! Please pray.

(3) NIGER: TERROR ESCALATES
Niger: a secular state with religious freedom; 97 percent Muslim, 0.33 percent Christian.

On 16 August Islamic jihadists attacked the commune of Banibangou, which is close to the Malian border in the Tillabery region of south-west Niger, killing 37 civilians, including 14 children. In March jihadists killed 137 in co-ordinated raids in neighbouring Tahoua region and in January over 100 people were killed in Tillabery, the same region as the 6 August attack. In June they attacked Fantio and Dolbel in Tillabery, killing seven (including two Christians) and burning the Catholic parish, the third parish to be abandoned due to escalating insecurity. Please pray.

* CUBA: PASTOR IMPERILLED
[update to RLPB 608 (July Update 2021).]

JAILED: Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo,
pictured with his wife Maridilegnis Carballo.
 

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that Cuban Protestant Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo, who was detained on 11 July during peaceful protests, has been transferred to the Boniato Maximum Security Prison outside the city of Santiago de Cuba. He was held incommunicado until 7 August when his wife was finally permitted to speak with him. According to CSW, Boniato Maximum Security Prison is notorious for its appalling conditions, violence and cruelty. It is also usually a prison where convicted criminals already serving sentences are sent, but Pastor Rosales Fajardo has not yet been tried or sentenced. Presumably he is being sent there for deterrent punishment. Please pray. Meanwhile, on 17 August the Cuban government published a new law that effectively criminalises all dissent. Presented as a cybersecurity law, Legal Decree 35 criminalises on-line criticism of the government as well as incitement to 'public disturbances' (i.e. peaceful protests). Please pray.

* INDIA: DIVIDE AND RULE IN BASTAR, CHHATTISGARH.

On 3 August Hindu nationalist leaders held an anti-Christian rally in Jagdalpur, the capital of Chhattisgarh state's volatile Bastar District. According to International Christian Concern, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who spoke at the rally perpetuated lies and incited violence against the Christian community. Amit Sahu, President of the Chhattisgarh BJP, told the crowd: 'Let us drag people from the church and stop conversions at any cost and make Bastar District a conversion-free zone.' Roop Singh Mandavi, another leader of the BJP, said: 'We will frighten Christians who are involved in conversion work in the region. We will not allow the missionary work to be carried on in Bastar and will protect the Hindu religion by stopping the conversions.' Though Christians were relieved that fewer than 500 people turned out to the well-publicised, high-profile event, they are anticipating a fresh wave of Christian persecution.

Nov 2018: Congress takes Chhattisgarh from BJP.
election results by Times of India

Bastar district (like Chhattisgarh in general), is a hotbed of Maoist/Naxalite insurgency. The Maoism of Nepal and India's tribal belt is less about communist ideology and more a protest against the crippling systemic discrimination, marginalisation and racism of the Hindu caste system. Many tribals who are labelled 'Naxals' are not Naxals/Maoists at all, but have common cause with Dalits and Christians. In November 2018 the BJP lost power in Chhattisgarh. Doubtless what the BJP is doing now is pursuing the policy of divide and rule which worked to reverse its fortunes in federal elections in 2019. Thus the BJP is 'creating a customised enemy for every group' [see RLPB 506, Christian Crisis in North India, 12 June 2019]. It is conniving to split the tribals and turn them against each other over the issue of conversions, thereby turning the problematic Maoists against the Christians and to have them see the BJP as saviour, rather than the racist, self-interested devil it actually is. 

'Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed' (Psalm 21:11). '… the way of the wicked he brings to ruin' (Psalm 146:9c). Please pray.

* MOZAMBIQUE: HEALING, HOPE AND OPPORTUNITY.

On 11 August 2020 militants belonging to Islamic State affiliate ASWJ seized control of the strategic port city of Mocimboa da Praia in Mozambique's northern-most province of Cabo Delgado [see RLPB 564, 'Islamic State Seizes Port' (26 Aug 2020)]. A battle for the city did not eventuate, and ASWJ was able to establish the port city as its headquarters. On 23 June 2021 the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) approved the deployment of troops to Mozambique to help combat the Islamic insurgency. Rwanda sent 1000 troops, who immediately went on the offensive. By 8 August Rwandan and Mozambiquan troops had recaptured Mocimboa da Praia. While many jihadists were killed, many more fled into the bush and north towards Tanzania. On 9 August SADC officially launched its counter-terrorism operation in Mozambique. On 12 August the governor of Cabo Delgado Province declared the city of Mocimboa da Praia safe for civilians to return. Soldiers from various SADC nations - including 1495 troops from South Africa - will continue the fight against the jihadists.

According to INcontext's contacts in Mozambique, the situation on the ground is dire, leaving many in the mostly Muslim north questioning God. 'As the SADC forces liberate towns and villages, they will potentially open the way for Christian NGOs to reach these communities and provide them with much-needed physical and spiritual support. This enables the Body of Christ to be a physical representation of the love of God the moment their communities have been freed of the physical representation of evil.' An earlier article in Christianity Today (3 August) told of pastors who, despite losing much, had chosen to remain in the traumatised region to serve among their fellow survivors: 'In nearby villages and makeshift camps set up throughout the region, these faith leaders are partnering with a handful of ministries, missionaries and Christian humanitarian organisations to distribute food, supplies and farming kits, as well as pray with people, preach the gospel and hand out thousands of solar-powered audio Bibles to all who ask. In the midst of an unthinkable crisis, they report that thousands are coming to faith in Christ.' Praise and thank God and pray that security will be restored, evil will be defeated, lies will be exposed, and the Gospel will take root in Cabo Delgado.

* NIGERIA: BANDITS EXTORT THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

On 5 July Fulani bandits abducted 121 boarding students from Kaduna's Bethel Baptist High School [RLPB 605 (7 July)]. On Sunday 25 July 28 students were released upon payment of ransom. Having pooled resources in the hope of collectively redeeming the children, parents of children not released were left distraught [RLPB 608 (30 July)]. On Saturday night 21 August, a further 15 students were released upon payment of ransom; 65 students remain in captivity. The Sharia-ruled, Muslim-majority North is a turbulent ocean of insecurity and suffering. According to the PSJ Data Team, at least 3186 persons were killed, 2963 abducted and 161 injured across Nigeria in the first six months of 2021. The violence is concentrated in the North and most of the killings occurred in Christian communities. Please pray.

* PAKISTAN: SHAFQAT AND SHAGUFTA FIND SANCTUARY 

Despite having been acquitted of blasphemy, Christians Shafqat Emmanuel (49) and his wife Shagufta Kausar (52) could not stay in Pakistan. So we prayed: 'may a place of refuge be made available overseas' [see RLPB 601, Acquitted but still imperilled, 9 June]. Praise and thank God that this faithful couple have arrived safely in Europe where they have been granted asylum in a country not named for security purposes. Shafqat told ADF International, 'We are so relieved to be free. The last eight years have been incredibly hard, but we are so happy to be reunited with our children. Hopefully, the blasphemy laws in Pakistan will soon be abolished so others won't suffer the same fate as Shagufta and me.' Praise and thank God for answered prayer; and for his sustaining grace and mercy shown to Shafqat and Shagufta. Please pray that Pakistan's blasphemy law will indeed be abolished. Please pray for the Church in Pakistan.

Free and safe in Europe: Shafqat and Shagufta, August 2021

-------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. She serves as Director of Advocacy at Canberra-based Christian Faith and Freedom (CFF) and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

She has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016).

See www.ElizabethKendal.com 

RLPB 573. October Update, incl. Artsakh, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Papua (Indonesia), Sudan.

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 573 | Wed 28 Oct 2020
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Please forward this prayer bulletin widely and encourage others to sign up to “Follow by email” on the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) blog.  ‘For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds’ (2 Corinthians 1:4 ESV). 

OCTOBER 2020 UPDATE
By Elizabeth Kendal

OCTOBER 2020 UPDATE - during this period we prayed concerning

* TURKEY, AZERBAIJAN, ARTSAKH AND THE ARMENIANS [RLPB 570 (7 Oct)], where neo-Ottoman Turkey and its jihadist proxies are backing Azerbaijan in a war to seize control of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Long a province of Armenia, Artsakh has been inhabited by Armenians for some 4000 years. In 1923, Joseph Stalin mischievously and fatefully made Orthodox Armenian Artsakh an autonomous region (or oblast) of the Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, setting the stage for today's conflict. Inexplicably, the UN dismisses as irrelevant the expressed will and rights of the residents (the right to self-determination), while accepting as inviolable the dictate of Joseph Stalin.

UPDATE: In 1918, the Ottoman Minister of War, Enver Pasha, ordered the formation of the 'Islamic Army of the Caucasus' that would drive out the Armenians and establish a pan-Turkic empire extending from Anatolia to the oil fields of Baku. Numerous massacres later, the Turks were ultimately driven out by Russian Bolshevik forces. Today, the Turkish dream is being revived by the neo-Ottomans of President Erdogan's AK Party.

On 8 October shells struck Shushi's Ghazanchetsots (Holy Saviour) Cathedral [drone footage]. Consecrated in 1888 (30 years before Azerbaijan even existed as a nation), the fully renovated church is both historic and symbolic. Women and children were sheltering there at the time; fortunately there were no casualties. Hours later, however, more shells hit the cathedral, this time wounding two Russian journalists, one critically. [For images, and video of Armenian-born cellist Sevak Avanesyan performing a lament amidst the rubble, click here: ClassicFM.] 

Of course, the destruction of property, even of historic and symbolic architecture, is nothing compared to the loss of human life; many hundreds of Armenian sons, brothers and fathers are today dying defending their homeland from Azeri, Turkish and jihadist aggression. Doctors from the Armenian diaspora have arrived in Stepanakert to treat the wounded. They report dealing with horrendous injuries believed to be from exploding cluster bombs. Multiple ceasefires have been brokered and broken. Since failing to take Artsakh in a blitzkrieg, Azeri-Turkish-jihadi forces have swept across the south of Artsakh, through the lowlands close to the Iranian border. A pivotal battle looms for control of the Lachin Corridor, a strategic mountain pass through which the sole highway linking Armenia to Artsakh passes.

Please pray for peace in the South Caucasus, and that Armenians' plea for and right to self-determination might be heard and respected before the Turks enact another genocide of Armenians. 

* IRAN [RLPB 571 (14 Oct)], where the cost of discipleship is high indeed. Not only are Christians harassed, intimidated, threatened and imprisoned, but a court has ruled that a Christian couple be denied parental rights over their adopted daughter, Lydia (adopted legally as an abandoned infant), deeming them 'not fit' to raise her. The ruling has shattered converts Sam and Maryam and will traumatise Lydia (2). It will also cast terror into the hearts of all adoptive Christian parents and deep sadness into the hearts of every infertile Christian couple. Please continue to pray that Iranians will be enraged by this ruling and that it might be overturned or at least never enacted.

* IVORY COAST [RLPB 572 (21 Oct)], where political violence - which plays out along ethnic and religious lines - is escalating ahead of the profoundly controversial and potentially explosive 31 October presidential election. The election crisis of Nov 2010-April 2011 pitted Islamic militias from the north (backed by France) against the Ivorian Military and police. After his inauguration, Ouattara rewarded the militias by incorporating them into the military and police. This raises the stakes considerably! Please pray.

OCTOBER 2020 ROUND-UP - also this month

* CYPRUS: GREEK CYPRIOTS FACING NEO-OTTOMAN STORM

click on map to enlarge

UPDATE to RLPB 560 (29 July) which reported that neo-Ottoman Turkey is upgrading its military forces and building up its troops in Turkey-occupied northern Cyprus, raising alarm among Greek Cypriots.

On 1-2 October, the European Union opted not to sanction Turkey for its belligerent behaviour in the Eastern Mediterranean. A week later, on 8 October, Turkey's President Erdogan announced that the once-prized and internationally acclaimed Cypriot beach resort of Varosha in Famagusta - on the Turkey-occupied side of the 'Attila Line' and cordoned off since the Turkish invasion in 1974 - be reopened and re-inhabited under Turkish Administration. On 18 October a heavily-influenced presidential election in Turkey-occupied northern Cyprus culminated in a transfer of power from the pro-unification, anti-Erdogan moderate, Mustafa Akinci to the Turkey-backed, pro-two-states, pro-Erdogan, neo-Ottoman hardliner Ersin Tatar. The status quo is over!

Please pray for all Christian leaders on Cyprus - political, civic and religious; may they have wisdom and insight (Ephesians 1:17) to navigate the challenging days ahead. May God protect and preserve his Church along with all the Christian ministries that serve the Lord in freedom in Greek Cypriot-ruled Cyprus (e.g. Nicosia-based Sat-7).

'For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.' (Ephesians 6:12 ESV).

* ETHIOPIA: DESTABILISATION WOULD BENEFIT ISLAM AT THE EXPENSE OF CHRISTIANS 

UPDATE to RLPB 560 (29 July). A battle is raging for the future of Ethiopia, an empire that has expanded over the centuries to absorb many diverse peoples [44 percent Orthodox, 19 percent Protestant (including many recent converts from Islam), 0.7 percent Catholic and 34 percent Muslim]. It is a battle that pits Prime Minister Abiy's vision of a strong united Ethiopia against that of ethnic nationalists (who would tear Ethiopia apart) and Islamists (who have their own agenda). Foreign forces also play a part; in particular, Egypt, which is known to back the Oromo Liberation Front (OML).

Egypt - which has long cried 'The Nile is my own' (Ezekiel 29) - is falsely claiming that Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will destroy Egyptian agriculture. In truth, the GERD will regulate - not stop - the waters of the Blue Nile. It will prevent flooding in Sudan, generate affordable electricity for sale to the whole region and lift millions of Ethiopians out of poverty. If Egypt were genuinely concerned, then it could tap into its vast reserves of underground water, just as Gaddafi did in Libya (see RLPB 560). That the White House is taking Egypt's side in the GERD dispute is 'reckless and uninformed', a betrayal of Ethiopia and definitely contrary to US and Christian interests. The destabilisation of Ethiopia would benefit Islam, be catastrophic for Ethiopia's Christian ethnic Amhara and put an end to the dream of a strong, prosperous and free Ethiopia. Please pray.

* MALI: NEGOTIATING WITH JIHADISTS

BACKGROUND: In December 2018, al-Qaeda's branch in Mali and West Africa, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM, or the 'Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims') released a video explaining that they would no longer release regular videos providing proof-of-life and demanding ransom for their captives. With that, the Malian desert went dark! [RLPB 487 (29 Jan 2019)]. Over the years, jihadist activity has escalated and advanced. Frustration over corruption and a decade of unsuccessful counterinsurgency culminated in a military coup in August 2020. Since his appointment on 27 September, Mali's interim Prime Minister Moctar Ouane (65, a civilian) has been eager to negotiate with the jihadists, despite opposition from former colonial power France.

UPDATE ON CAPTIVES: On 8 October 2020 JNIM released French missionary Sophie Petronin (75, abducted from Gao, northern Mali, in December 2016) along with two Italian aid workers and a Malian politician in exchange for 180 imprisoned jihadists. Petronin maintains she has converted to Islam. While this may or may not be true, it doubtless explains her release. Just a month earlier, JNIM executed Swiss missionary Beatrice Stockly (75, abducted from Timbuktu, northern Mali, in January 2016). Petronin reports that fellow-captive Sister Gloria Navarez (a Columbian nun abducted from Karangasso, southern Mali, in February 2017) is 'alive but needs care'. There is no word on Australian surgeon Dr Ken Elliot (86, abducted from Djibo in Burkina Faso's far north, in January 2016) whose skills as a doctor doubtless render him indispensable. Neither is there any word on American missionary Jeff Woodke (59, abducted from Abalak, northern Niger, in October 2016). Please pray for Dr Ken Elliott, Jeff Woodke and Sister Gloria Navarez; may God's grace sustain them; may Christ's love shine through them; and may the Spirit intervene for them to bring them liberty.

* MOZAMBIQUE: JIHAD TRIGGERS HUMANITIARIAN CRISIS

UPDATE to RLPB 564 (26 Aug). On 11 August well-trained jihadists armed with sophisticated weapons attacked Mocimboa da Praia in Mozambique's northern-most province of Cabo Delgado. The military fled, leaving Islamic State affiliate Al-Sunna wa Jama'a (ASWJ) in control of the strategic port city. Two months later, the military remains paralysed and ASWJ remains in control.

Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Pemba told Aid to the Church in Need that the parishes in Pemba Diocese have received more than 250,000 displaced people (mostly Muslims), many of whom fled with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. The diocese is training priests, sisters and lay pastoral workers in trauma counselling, creating support groups in parishes and implementing new pastoral strategies to address the ongoing crisis in Cabo Delgado. Neville Kyrke-Smith, national director of Aid to the Church in Need (UK), comments, 'In caring for displaced families we are helping to offer the love of Christ to those in such need.' These churches will rely on donations and need to be sustained by prayer. May the Lord redeem this suffering for the glory of his kingdom. Please pray.

* PAKISTAN: NO GIRL IS SAFE

UPDATE to RLPBs 564 (26 Aug) and 569 (30 Sep). Having escaped from her Muslim captor, Maira Shahbaz (14) remains in hiding along with her mother and siblings. With the family receiving death threats, Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need (UK) is appealing to the British government to grant the family asylum in the UK. Please pray.

Arzoo's parents with her picture. 
photo: Fahim Siddiai/White Star, DAWN 24 Oct 2020
 

Meanwhile, a Catholic teenager has since been abducted in Karachi. Arzoo Raja (13) was kidnapped on 13 October, converted to Islam and forcibly married to her Muslim abductor, Azhar Ali, who is known to the family and 'at least 45'. Before he abducted her, Azhar Ali (whose brothers are police) had fake papers produced stating that Arzoo was 18, which would make her conversion and marriage legal. On 24 October Christians, Hindus and Muslims rallied together outside the Karachi Press Club in a protest led by the 'National Peace Committee Interfaith Harmony'. They called for Arzoo to be returned to her family and for an end to what is nothing other than human trafficking across religious lines. Prominent Muslim attorney, Ms Noor Naz Agha is taking up the case. Please pray.

* PAPUA (INDONESIA): INVESTIGATION INTO KILLING OF PASTOR YEREMIA ZANAMBANI

UPDATE to RLPB 569 (30 Sep). After a 14-day investigation, an Indonesian government-sanctioned joint fact-finding team has reported that it found indications that security forces were involved in the killing of Papuan pastor Yeremia Zanambani, who was shot dead in Intan Jaya Regency, Papua Province, on 19 September. It is now up to law enforcement agencies to investigate the findings. According to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) - which was not part of the government team - the killing of Reverend Zanambani is not a stand-alone incident, but rather one of a series of violent incidents involving at least 18 other cases. Please pray for the indigenous Melanesian Christians of Indonesia's Papuan Provinces; may persecution and impunity come to an end.

* SUDAN: REVOLUTION ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE

UPDATE to RLPB 569 (30 Sep): A Plea for Sudan.

Last week, under immense pressure from the US government, Sudan's transitional government agreed to pay compensation for terrorism committed by the now-ousted regime and normalise relations with Israel. Courageous, reformist Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok had pleaded with the US not to link sanctions relief to recognition of Israel, for not only is Sudan exceedingly fragile and volatile, but as an un-elected body, the transitional government does not have a mandate to change foreign policy.

As soon as the deal was struck, support for the transitional government started unravelling. Sudan's Popular Congress Party (PCP), the second most prominent component of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) political coalition, rejected the deal, as did several other members of the FFC. Former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, who leads Sudan's largest political party (the National Umma Party) rejected the deal, as did Kamal Omar, a PCP leader, who slammed the transitional government for overstepping its mandate. A coalition is now being formed to oppose the transitional government. Protesters have taken to the streets of Khartoum, burning Israeli flags and chanting 'no peace, no negotiation, no reconciliation with the occupying entity' and 'we will not surrender, we will always stand with Palestine'. Sudan's military leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan - Chairman of the Sovereignty Council - and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti) both insist that Sudan stands to gain much by normalising ties with Israel. That is certainly true. But if Sudan descends into chaos, the only ones to gain will be the military and the Islamists. Sudan's revolution is on the brink of collapse. Please pray.

-----------------------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. She serves as Director of Advocacy at Canberra-based Christian Faith and Freedom (CFF) and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

She has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016).

See www.ElizabethKendal.com