RLPB 709. Azerbaijan and Sudan: Long-persecuted Christians face starvation

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 709 | Wed 06 Sep 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com
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AZERBAIJAN & SUDAN: LONG-PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS FACE STARVATION
By Elizabeth Kendal

AZERBAIJAN: CHRISTIAN CRISIS FOR ARMENIANS IN N-K

BACKGROUND: Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K) is a mountainous Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan. Prior to November 2020, Artsakh – i.e. N-K and its surrounds – was autonomous and protected by Armenia. However, on 27 September 2020, Azerbaijan – with support from Turkey and sophisticated weapons from allies Turkey, the US and Israel – launched a war to seize control of Artsakh. RLPB warned: ‘Make no mistake… Turkey and Azerbaijan have genocidal intent’ [RLPB 570 (7 Oct 2020)]. Whilst a Russia-brokered ceasefire, signed on 10 November 2020, did halt the Azeri-Turkic advance, it left the 120,000 Armenians of what remained of N-K in an exceedingly vulnerable position. With all the lowlands contiguous with Armenia lost, the only link between Armenia and N-K was the Lachin Corridor, which would be monitored by Russian peacekeepers. RLPB posed the question: ‘Is this a case of genocide averted or genocide postponed?’ [RLPB 575 (11 Nov 2020)]

SIEGE: On 12 December 2022 fake ‘eco-activists’ sponsored by the Azerbaijani government blockaded the Lachin Corridor essentially besieging the Armenian Christian enclave [RLPB 677 (25 Jan 2023)]. Eventually, on 15 June, Azerbaijan officially closed the Lachin Corridor and set up a military checkpoint to enforce the siege, severing all access to food, water, medicines, fuel, gas, electricity etc. RLPB warned: ‘the stage is being set for genocide’ [RLPB 702 (19 July 2023)].

Stepanakert, N-K, 23 June 2023,
30,000 children without food.
(Tatevik Hayrapetyan via X)
Armenian Lives Matter!

STARVATION LOOMS: On 7 August Luis Moreno Ocampo, a former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) released a report in which he argues that the blockade of the Lachin Corridor ‘should be considered a Genocide against the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.” … Starvation,’ he said, ‘is the invisible genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.’ Multiple convoys loaded with humanitarian aid remain holed up at the Lachin Corridor checkpoint having been denied entry into N-K. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo [who championed the cause of Asia Bibi] accompanied the French convoy. She writes (30 Aug): ‘Here at the Lachin Corridor, we testify that no humanitarian aid can enter Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] in total violation of human rights. Our 10 humanitarian aid lorries were blocked. A humanitarian crisis is underway, it is urgent.’ The siege is entering its final stage. People have started to die of malnutrition, while miscarriages and stillbirths have risen by a reported 30 percent. Hospital and supermarket shelves are all bare. Bread (if you can get it) is rationed at 200g per person per day. State reserves of flour and fuel are almost totally depleted. Winter approaches. Genocide looms.


SUDAN: CHRISTIAN CRISIS FOR NUBA IN SOUTH KORDOFAN

BACKGROUND: On 15 April 2023 conflict erupted in Khartoum between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as the two forces commenced a battle for supremacy. The conflict quickly spread to the non-Arab periphery. Genocide is again being perpetrated in Darfur, and full-scale civil war looms over South Kordofan (home to over a million Christians; most of whom live in the Nuba Mountains; many of whom are genocide survivors). In early June, with the SAF distracted, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (al-Hilu faction) exploited the opportunity to take over several SAF compounds around South Kordofan’s capital, Kadugli. [The SPLM-N Hilu faction defends the interests of South Kordofan’s non-Arab, non-Muslim, predominately Christian Nuba tribes.] On 12 June the SAF launched its first air-strikes on the Nuba Mountains since 2016 [RLPB 698 (21 June 2023)]. By mid-August the SPLM-N had taken around 10 bases from the SAF, along with the Karakaya oil facility south of Dilling, meeting very little resistance. In the process the SPLM-N (Hilu) has expanded its territorial control of the state from roughly half to about 60 percent.

Women and children in Nuba Mts
protest the targeting and killing of
Nuba people across Sudan (2022).
- via Dabanga 7 April 2023
Nuba Lives Matter!

 

SIEGE-LIKE CONDITIONS: Save the Children, which maintains an office in Kadugli, reports (2 September): ‘Fighting escalated on 14 August, forcing over 50,000 people – including at least 30,000 children – to be displaced across the town of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State. Roadblocks have created a siege-like situation, with food stocks in Kadugli Town fully depleted, and attempts to bring in more supplies failing.’ Reporting from Khartoum, Zeinab Mohammed Salih explains (The Guardian, 20 Aug): ‘The RSF has taken control of the strategic town of Ed Dubeibat [Ed-Dibebat/Dibebad in South Kordofan’s far north-west], which links South Kordofan to the rest of Sudan with a network of roads and railway. The SAF has blocked the roads linking Kadugli and Dilling [60km south of Ed-Dubeibat and 130 north of Kadugli]’ ostensibly to trap those hoping to flee. According to a local women’s rights activist, the situation has deteriorated since the government closed the road connecting Khartoum to Kordofan and Darfur, saying now every vehicle on the road is considered a military target.

STARVATION LOOMS: Sudan Tribune (22 Aug) quotes South Kordofan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) which warns: ‘There is a dire shortage of food and nutrition supplies in Kadugli town. The last food distributions for three months were in May, and those supplies will only last families until the end of this month [August]. Other humanitarian stocks in Kadugli, especially health and nutrition supplies are also running low.’ Save the Children’s Country Director in Sudan, Dr Arif Noor adds: ‘In many ways [Kadugli] is under siege, as food stocks have totally run out and there is no way to replenish them. Those who remain and are injured will not get the medical treatment they need to survive. There is a very real risk that children will start dying from hunger… The international community needs to recognise and treat the conflict in Sudan as the large-scale emergency that it is, and act accordingly.’


PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:

* ‘look and see’ (Lamentations 1:11).and be moved to act on behalf of his imperilled people: Christian Armenians besieged in Nagorno-Karabakh and Christian Nuba suffering siege-like conditions in South Kordofan. May the Lord of the Breakthrough (2 Sam 5:20) open the way for life-saving humanitarian aid to be delivered to those in need.

* move in the hearts of those who have the potential to be peacemakers, and those who have authority and responsibility to negotiate solutions, for the saving of many lives; may the Lord grant them courage, conviction and direction. May the Lord of the Breakthrough (2 Sam 5:20) intervene in Azerbaijan and Sudan that his children might be free to lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

May the world – and especially the Church – cease to be an impassive passer-by (Lamentations 1:11-12a).

SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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AZERBAIJAN & SUDAN: CHRISTIANS FACE STARVATION

For Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh (an Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan) the siege has reached its final stage. Hospital and supermarket shelves are bare. Bread (if you can get it) is rationed at 200g per person per day. People have started dying of malnutrition, while miscarriages and stillbirths are up 30 percent. Azerbaijan’s aim is nothing less than genocide. Lord have mercy! Meanwhile in Sudan’s South Kordofan (home to more than one million Christians), Save the Children reports (2 September): ‘Roadblocks have created a siege-like situation, with food stocks in Kadugli [the capital] fully depleted, and attempts to bring in more supplies failing.’ Thousands are displaced without food, water or medical care. Save the Children’s Dr Arif Noor expects children will soon start dying from hunger. Lord have mercy!

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

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 699. June Update, incl. Sudan, Azerbaijan, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Uganda

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 699 | Wed 28 June 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com  
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
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JUNE 2023 UPDATE & ROUNDUP
By Elizabeth Kendal

UPDATE: DURING JUNE WE PRAYED CONCERNING

HONG KONG [RLPB 696 (7 June)], after three Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-approved religious umbrella bodies – the China Christian Council, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the Hong Kong Christian Council – held their first ever conference on ‘The Sinicisation of Christianity’ in Hong Kong. If Beijing’s directly imposed national security law (enacted June 2020) ended the era of ‘One China Two Systems’, then the conference doubtless heralds the end of an era of ‘tolerance’. Hong Kong’s roughly 1500 churches, 35 Bible Colleges and multiple Christian media organisations will now be expected to either ‘sinicise’ – i.e. become obedient servants of the CCP – or face persecution and dissolution, as on the mainland. Please pray for the Church in Hong Kong.

NORTH KOREA [RLPB 697 (14 June)], after the arrest of five Christians who had gathered at a farmhouse for a secret time of pre-dawn prayer and worship. In North Korea, the Kim Dynasty alone is to be worshipped and obeyed. Putting God above the Kim dynasty is a political crime in North Korea, the penalty for which would normally be that the accused – along with three generations of their family – would be imprisoned in a concentration camp and condemned to hard labour. These prisons are essentially death camps, where many prisoners die from brutality and starvation. A local resident told Radio Free Asia: ‘A staff member of the judicial agency told us that the [believers] refused to tell where they got their Bibles and said, “All for Jesus, even in death”.’ Please pray for the Church in North Korea.

SUDAN [RLPB 698 (21 June)], as the conflict which erupted on 15 April in Khartoum between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) spreads south, into South Kordofan, threatening the lives of well over a million Christians. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (Hilu faction: which represents the interests of the predominantly Christian Nuba tribes) is fighting both RSF and SAF forces. On 12 June, the SAF dropped bombs on the long marginalised, predominantly Christian Nuba Mountains for the first time since 2016. Christians in the jihad-ravaged Nuba Mountains are again facing the spectre of war, famine and death.

UPDATE: CONFLICT ESCALATES IN SOUTH KORDOFAN

Whilst most reports contain contested and unconfirmed accounts, fighting does appear to be escalating along the El Obeid – Kadugli axis, with the RSF and SAF fighting each other, and the SPLM-N (Hilu faction) forced to fight both. Responding to claims it has breached a cessation of hostilities agreement, the SPLM-N (Hilu faction) has publicly stated that it reserves the right ‘to respond to any attacks against the Nuba people in areas controlled by [its] army’. The situation is fluid; tensions are soaring, and much is at stake. Meanwhile, in Khartoum, numerous reports indicate that the RSF has taken control of most of the city by using civilians as human shields. Of course such a tactic would never work in Darfur (which is rich in gold) or South Kordofan (where most of Sudan’s oil reserves are located) or in Blue Nile (which is rich in water) as the SAF has never had a problem with bombing and strafing non-Arab civilians. The spectre of protracted devastating war looms large over the entire non-Arab periphery, including the predominantly Christian Nuba Mountains (population estimated to be around 1.5 million). Lord have mercy! Please pray.


JUNE 2023 ROUND-UP – ALSO THIS MONTH

* AZERBAIJAN: LACHIN CORRIDOR CLOSED

On 15 June Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers engaged in a skirmish at the entrance to the Lachin/Berdzor Corridor. Each side blamed the other, and Azerbaijan responded by closing the corridor – which is the only road connecting Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K) to Armenia and the outside world. The closure extends to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – which is responsible for getting humanitarian aid in and medical evacuations out – and Russian peacekeepers. On 20 June, Artsakh State Minister Gurgen Nersisyan lamented: ‘The situation is turning disastrous day by day, and it is incomprehensible why the world tolerates this.’ In a statement dated 23 June, the European Union described the situation as ‘very worrying’, adding, ‘It directly threatens the livelihoods of the local population and raises serious fears of a potential humanitarian crisis.’ Few doubt that Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan is eager to ethnically cleanse Artsakh/N-K of Armenian Christians. Talks are currently underway in Moscow. Please pray.

BACKGROUND: STALIN’S BORDERS
Long part of, and integral to, the historic Christian Kingdom of Armenia, Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) now exists as an Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan. In the 1920s-30s, Stalin carved up the Russian Federation into ethnic republics to create the Union of Social Soviet Republics (USSR). To ensure that the ethnic minorities of the Russian Federation’s periphery (e.g. Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Azeris etc) could not break away, Stalin made sure (by way of borders) that each SSR included a large (often 40 percent) ethnic minority. Following this strategy, Stalin placed Artsakh – which includes the mountainous NK region – inside the borders of the Azerbaijan SSR. By this means, Stalin hoped to keep the periphery restive (therefore focused on itself, not the centre) and forever tied to the Russian SSR. This is why so many Russians consider the break-up of the Soviet Union a disaster: it left millions of Russians – along with Armenians and others – stranded, as ethnic minorities, often in hostile territory, separated from their ethnic kin and co-religionists by artificial borders imposed by a mischievous dictator. Stalin’s ally, fellow Communist Bros Tito did the same in Yugoslavia. We continue to live with the consequences. Lord have mercy!

* INDIA: MANIPUR STILL BURNING
Update to RLPB 694. Manipur Burns, 17 May 2023

Manipur Violence: Escaping the Conflict,
 Kuki Families Find Safe Haven in Delhi.
The Quint, 1 June 2023

The ethno-religious violence that erupted in Manipur on 3 May shows no sign of abating. In an open letter dated 16 June and bearing the signatures of some 550 civil society groups, advocates demand Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi end his silence over the sectarian violence that has claimed some 115 lives and displaced over 50,000 people, mostly ethnic Kuki Christians. Catholic media reports (21 June): ‘The June 16 letter called for “an immediate stop to divisive politics by the state and security forces”… Manipur is burning today in very large part due to the divisive politics played by the BJP and its governments. And on them lies the onus to stop this ongoing civil war before more lives are lost.’

On 19 June Times of Israel expressed alarm regarding the plight of Manipur’s ethnic Kuki, Jewish Bnei Menashe community, among whom one has been killed and over 1000 are now displaced (20 percent of the community), while two synagogues have been burned to the ground. An estimated 292 Bnei Menashe families have fled into the Kuki-majority hill areas within Manipur or to the nearby state of Mizoram. Times of Israel quotes researcher, Sushant Singh – who accuses state police and security forces of joining Meitei groups in targeting Kukis: ‘It has essentially been a state gone rogue acting against a minority community.’

On 20 June India’s top court declined to entertain an urgent hearing on a plea filed by the Manipur Tribal Forum to deploy army personnel to protect Kuki Christians in strife-torn Manipur. A Catholic official told UCA News (21 June): ‘Abandoned houses of displaced Christians continued to be burnt down, apparently, in a planned attempt to erase their existence there.’ Lord have mercy! Please pray.

* IRAQ: EXISTENTIAL CRISIS IN NINEVEH PLAINS
Update to RLPB 695, May Update, Iraq: An Existential Christian Crisis, 24 May 2023

In an open letter dated 19 June, five Iraqi political groups led by Christian leaders and activists protested the large-scale real estate operations underway in Northern Iraq designed to change the demographics of the Nineveh Plains. The five political groups are: the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa), the National Union of Beth Nahrain, the Abnaa al-Nahrain Party, the Assyrian National Party and the Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriac Popular Council. The ‘Babylon Movement’ – which controls four of the five seats reserved for Christian deputies in the Iraqi Parliament – did not sign. As noted in RLPB 695 (24 May) the Babylon Movement is profoundly compromised. Having won its seats on the votes of Sunni Kurds and Shi’ite Arabs, it is obliged to advance the interests of those communities, not the region’s indigenous Assyrian Christians.

The illegal real estate operation involves the municipalities of Nineveh selling residential land in the Assyrian homeland of the Nineveh Plains to individuals who are not from the region and who are not members of the Assyrian Christian community. The operation violates Iraq’s 2005 constitution Article 23.3.b – ‘Ownership of property for the purposes of demographic change is prohibited’ – and the 2013 Federal Supreme Court ruling which interpreted that article.

The signatories are appealing for Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani and other relevant Ministers to intervene immediately to put a stop to the illegal sale of land and real estate in the Nineveh Plains to individuals outside the indigenous Assyrian Christian community. If the Iraqi government fails, then the end of the Assyrian nation’s existence in its historic homeland is all but guaranteed. If the constitution is not upheld, then, within a few years, Muslims will come to dominate the Nineveh Plains and the indigenous Assyrians will be driven out, ending a history that spans well over three millennia. Please pray.

* NIGERIA: CHRISTIAN CRISIS PERSISTS IN MIDDLE BELT

At least 450 Christians have been killed in the Middle Belt states of Nasarawa, Benue and Plateau states since mid-May. Christianity Today reports (22 June): ‘Tens of thousands were displaced… Whole villages, dozens of church buildings and thousands of homes reportedly were destroyed. Grain was looted.’ The culprits: Muslim Fulani herdsmen. International Christian Concern reports (27 June): ‘Christian communities in Plateau State, North-Central Nigeria, were heavily hit this month by radical Fulani militants…Thirty-seven Christian farmers saw their crops destroyed and land taken over by Fulani this month.’ Christian communities are targeted in what is an orchestrated campaign of Fulani-Islamic expansion. Civilians are massacred, farms are seized, churches are burned, believers are abducted and pastors are slaughtered – all with impunity. There is no security. Lord have mercy! Please pray. [For stories and more detail see Morning Star News / Nigeria.]

* UGANDA: ISLAMIC STATE TERROR ROCKS THE WEST

Uganda school attack
survivor speaks of ordeal.
(Al Jazeera, 18 June 2023)

On Friday evening 16 June, the roughly 60 boarding students at Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, in Uganda’s Western Region, were singing Gospel songs (as is their custom at the end of the day) when they came under attack. The five terrorists – presumed to be Islamic State Democratic Republic of Congo (ISDRC) – first targeted the boys’ dormitory. When the boys refused to open the door, the terrorists unleashed a round of gunfire. They then dowsed the dormitory with flammable liquid and set it alight. They then moved on to the girls’ dormitory where they attacked the girls with machetes, all the while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (Allah is greater). The dead include 38 students, one guard and two members of the local community. Eight survivors remain in a critical condition in hospital. Six students were abducted – taken across the border into DRC’s terror-wracked North Kivu Province. Three students who had managed to escape were subsequently rescued by the Ugandan Army. A woman with two children who had been kidnapped outside the school was also rescued, together with her children.

Due to its location – close to border of Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) North Kivu Province where ISDRC [formerly known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)] is believed to be based [see RLPB 681 (22 Feb)] – many believe the school should have been provided with more security. By 20 June more than 20 people had been arrested, including school officials who stand accused of collaborating with the terrorists for personal gain. Please pray for the grieving families, for the wounded and traumatised, and for the school community. May justice be done, may Islamic State be defeated and may peace and security be restored in predominantly Christian Uganda and in predominantly Christian DR Congo’s long-suffering north-east.

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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 698. Sudan: Hell in Khartoum, Genocide in Darfur, El Obeid Besieged, Nuba Mts Bombed.

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 698 | Wed 21 June 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com  
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

SUDAN: HELL IN KHARTOUM, GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, EL OBEID BESIEGED, NUBA MTS BOMBED.
By Elizabeth Kendal

Excellent short backgrounder:
Sudan and its Endgames,
MEMRI, 24 April 2023

On 15 April 2023 conflict erupted in Khartoum between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF, led by General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan) and its former partner, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (‘Hemedti’). The SAF represents the Arab-Islamist Muslim Brotherhood-led Deep State of former president Omar al-Bashir. Meanwhile, the RSF’s interests lie primarily in preserving its own power as an independent paramilitary, along with the wealth it garners through its control of Darfur’s gold mines. Comprised mostly of Darfurian Arabs, the RSF was established in 2013 and is used as a regime proxy by the Arab supremacists in Khartoum to wage genocide against Darfur’s predominantly Muslim, long-marginalised, rebellious black African tribes. It was the insistence that the RSF be integrated into the SAF – something rejected by the RSF, as well as many of the SAF’s professional soldiers who despise the RSF as little more than gangsters – that ultimately triggered the current conflict.

Today, Darfur’s black African tribes are once again facing genocide at the hands of Arab janjaweed militias backed by Hemedti’s RSF which is determined to eliminate all opposition. In North Kordofan, the capital, El Obeid, is now completely besieged by the RSF. In South Kordofan, on 12 June, bombs fell on the predominantly Christian Nuba Mountains for the first time since 2016. The US-based charity Persecution Project reports that on ‘Monday [12 June], only moments after a Persecution Project emergency relief and shelter outreach was completed, two Sudanese fighter jets flew over our distribution centre, terrifying the residents and dropping two bombs in the vicinity'. Hundreds of thousands of war-weary Christians in the jihad-ravaged Nuba Mountains – many of them genocide survivors – are again facing the spectre of war and famine.

Map of South Kordofan
showing (from north to south)
El Obeid, Debibad, Delling, Kadugli.
MAP source

Since 15 April, the fighting in Khartoum has driven thousands of South Sudanese and Nuba Christians to flee south. Most of those headed for South Kordofan or South Sudan will travel through North Kordofan and its capital El Obeid/Al-Ubayyid. As with Darfur, fighting erupted in El Obeid in April. On 27 April, during a violent clash between RSF and SAF forces, two rockets struck El Obeid’s Catholic Cathedral. One rocket hit the priest’s residence, and the other blasted into the Cathedral’s front gate, blowing out the Cathedral’s windows. Priests, who were praying inside the church at the time, thanked God that no-one was injured; they are determined to remain in the city for the people. Radio Dabanga reports (13 June): ‘El Obeid is now besieged from all sides by the RSF.’ While water and electricity have been restored, the situation is catastrophic, especially for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) transiting south. On 14 June the SAF carried out ‘air strikes for the first time in El Obeid’.

NUBA MOUNTAINS: Radio Dabanga reports (14 June) that between 2 May and 5 June, 179,333 IDPs arrived in ‘Dalami, Heiban, Tubou (sic) [could this be Talodi/Talawdi?] and the eastern parts of the Nuba Mountains’. This influx of traumatised and wounded, mostly women and children – into a region long marginalised, dependant on humanitarian aid, and with only one medical clinic – is exacerbating an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.

Abdel Aziz al-Hilu (image: Nuba Reports)
[see RLPB 567 (16 Sept 2020)]

According to Reuters (8 June), skirmishes between the RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (Hilu faction; which represents the interests of the predominantly Christian Nuba tribes) ‘have been on-going for months’. On Thursday 8 June Abdel Aziz al-Hilu mobilised his forces [SPLM/A-North (Hilu faction)] in South Kordofan. On 9 June Hilu’s forces managed to take over several SAF compounds around South Kordofan’s capital, Kadugli, after SAF troops were redeployed away from there to fight the RSF in El Obeid. The SAF has responded by reinforcing its positions throughout South Kordofan. On Saturday 10 June Military Intelligence officers in Delling/Dilling – a key city in South Kordofan’s north-west, 133 km due north of Kadugli – stopped buses carrying IDPs to Kadugli, claiming insecurity. On 12 June the SAF launched its first airstrikes on the Nuba Mountains since 2016. On 20 June Radio Dabanga reported that the RSF had ‘raided’ and ‘plundered’ Debibad, a town in South Kordofan north of Delling, while fighting between the SAF and the SPLM-N (Hilu faction) south of Kadugli ‘continued over the weekend’.

PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:

* intervene in Sudan to end the fighting. A negotiated settlement seems unlikely as the parties are simply too far apart. However: ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’ (Matthew 19:26) and God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). Lord have mercy!

* protect and provide for Sudan’s long-persecuted Christians. We pray especially for the predominantly Christian, war-ravaged Nuba Mountains – may the Lord rise up and fight for his people against all those who would do them harm.

‘Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! … Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them away! Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them!' (Psalm 35:1a, 5-6 ESV)

* deploy his angelic forces to protect and defend all those delivering humanitarian aid to those whose lives depend on it. May Sudan’s Christians – especially those who are displaced or trapped in conflict zones – seek the Lord for everything they need; may they experience his provision and deliverance. Lord have mercy!

'May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! May he send you help from the sanctuary … May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.' (From Psalm 20)


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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SUDAN: NUBA MOUNTAINS BOMBED

On 15 April conflict erupted in Khartoum between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and its former partner, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Fighting quickly spread to Darfur, where genocide is currently underway (with Arab militias killing black Africans), and North Kordofan, where the capital, El Obeid is now besieged – its Cathedral hit by rockets. In recent weeks the conflict also spread to South Kordofan, where the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (Hilu faction: which represents the interests of the predominantly Christian Nuba tribes) is fighting both RSF and SAF forces. On 12 June bombs fell on the Nuba Mountains for the first time since 2016. Hundreds of thousands of war-weary Christians in the jihad-ravaged Nuba Mountains – many of them genocide survivors – are again facing the spectre of war, famine and death. 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 695. May Update, incl. India (Manipur), Australia, Azerbaijan, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, India (Goa), Iran, Iraq, Mali, Pakistan, Sudan

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 695 | Wed 24 May 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com  
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

NOTICE: There will be no RLPB next week – Wednesday 31 May – as I will be taking a much-needed break. Consequently, I am publishing the May Update this week, giving us plenty to pray about for the rest of May.

MAY 2023 UPDATE & ROUNDUP
By Elizabeth Kendal

UPDATE: DURING MAY WE PRAYED CONCERNING

BANGLADESH [RLPB 692 (3 May)], where the Bangladesh Armed Forces is waging a counter-terror operation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Because the BAF accuses the Christian Kuki-Chin minority of providing aid and support to al-Qaeda-linked jihadists (JAFHS), the Christian Kuki-Chin – who are seeking autonomy so they might preserve their people, lands and culture – are also under attack. Thousands have been driven from their homes, with the help of a tribal Buddhist militia that has forged a peace deal with the Bangladeshi government. This is an on-going – and indeed, existential – Christian crisis. Please pray.

LIBYA [RLPB 693 (10 May)], where six Libyan nationals who have been arrested for apostasy (leaving Islam) and Christian proselytism (missionary work) could face the death penalty if found guilty. The authorities have broadcast video footage of their recorded ‘confessions’; one believer had already broken under torture. Please pray.
 
INDIA [RLPB 694 (17 May)], where rioting in the North East state of Manipur by the dominant, mostly Hindu Meitei tribe against the mostly Christian Kuki-Chin hill tribes has left the Christian community deeply traumatised.

UPDATE: SUPREME COURT BACKS CHRISTIAN APPEAL

On 17 May India’s Supreme Court (SC) heard a petition filed by the Manipur Tribal Forum appealing for urgent intervention to contain the violence. The SC’s Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud denounced the order of the Manipur High Court that led to the sectarian violence, declaring it ‘absolutely wrong’, and asked Manipur’s BJP-led state government to furnish the SC with a status report. A senior Catholic Church leader described the effect of the Chief Justice’s words as ‘like applying balm on the wounds’. ‘The high court order paved the way for violence and now the top court in the country has termed it illegal. This is something heart-warming amidst tension and fear,’ Father Velikakkam told UCA News on 18 May. The toll to date: more than 70 dead and 231 injured; with 121 churches and some 1700 homes burned. The state has opened 318 relief camps in which 47,914 persons have been accommodated. While those in the camps are receiving some aid, those taken in by relatives and those languishing in the bush, are not receiving any government assistance. Around 62 companies of Central Armed Forces and 126 columns of the Indian Army have been deployed along with state police to maintain law and order. Please pray.

‘your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you?’ [from Lamentations 2]

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” [Lamentations 3:21-24 ESV]


MAY 2023 ROUND-UP – ALSO THIS MONTH

* AUSTRALIA: A.C.T. GOVERNMENT SEIZES CATHOLIC HOSPITAL

Calvary Public Hospital, Canberra, A.C.T.

Located in Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Calvary Public Hospital is one of two major public hospitals in the city. Owned and run by the Catholic Church, Calvary Hospital has been serving the community since 1979. In recent years, however, the ACT’s Labor-Greens coalition government has been at war with the hospital administration over its ‘definition of healthcare’. As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports (ABC, 17 May): ‘For the government, the provision of abortion is non-negotiable, whereas Calvary Hospital relies on institutional conscientious objection to refrain from participating in abortion based on the conviction that it is morally wrong to intentionally end a human life.’ On 11 May the ACT government passed the Health Infrastructure Enabling Bill 2023. The legislation enables the government to legally take ‘the Calvary Public Hospital land, and transition existing Calvary staff and assets to the Territory’. This is happening at ‘breakneck speed’, with the acquisition set to be complete by 3 July.

John Steenhof of the Human Rights Law Alliance notes, this ‘disquieting move ... has sparked concerns about the future of religious freedom rights… Despite the government’s assertions that the acquisition is not related to ideology, the forced acquisition comes shortly after the release of the final report of the government’s inquiry into abortion access in the ACT, which was scathing of Calvary hospital, characterising it as “problematic” due to its “overriding religious ethos”.’ Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher OP writes: ‘It’s no secret that the ACT government want to force Calvary Hospital to provide abortions now, and euthanasia and assisted suicide in the future. Taking the land, buildings and hospital equipment and transferring staff employment across to Canberra Health Services allows them to push their anti-life agenda right through the hospital.’ As the ABC notes, the move ‘has far-reaching ramifications for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience in Australia’. Please pray.

See also
Forced Government Takeover: What’s Next?
Australian Christian Lobby, 19 May 2023 (YouTube)

 * AZERBAIJAN: PERILOUS STATE OF ARMENIAN MINORITY
Update to RLPB 677, Nagorno-Karabakh Besieged, 25 Jan 2023

On 23 April Azerbaijan installed a border checkpoint at the entrance of the Lachin Corridor, the road that links Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K; an Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan). Whilst the blockade has now been suspended, all Armenians travelling to and from N-K are now being screened by Azerbaijani border guards. Armenian villagers living between the blockade (near Shusha) and the checkpoint report feeling trapped. N-K residents requiring urgent medical care in Armenia are having to be escorted by Russian peacekeepers. Armenians in N-K feel abandoned, particularly by the West which is heavily invested in Azerbaijan and needs its oil. For the Armenians of N-K, the threat of genocide looms larger by the day. Please pray.

BURMA (MYANMAR): REV. DR SAMSON’S APPEAL DENIED
Update to RLPB 675, Burma: Christian Leader Arrested, 14 Dec 2022

On 3 May, to mark the occasion of Vesak (an important Buddhist festival), the Burmese junta amnestied and released 2135 political prisoners. Among those not released was the Rev. Dr Hkalam Samson (65), a former leader of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) and respected peace advocate. Arrested on 4 December 2022, Dr Samson was charged with ‘terrorism, unlawful association, and inciting opposition’, and sentenced on Good Friday 7 April to six years in prison [RLPB 689 (12 April)]. On 2 May – the day before the Vesak amnesty – the Myitkyina Prison Court, in Burma’s northern Kachin state, rejected Dr Samson’s appeal. Please pray.

* CHAD: CHRISTIAN VILLAGES ATTACKED IN SOUTH

encircled: Logone Oriental.
(click on map to enlarge)

On Monday morning 8 May Fulani Muslim militants attacked Christian communities in Logone Oriental, a region in Chad’s deep south bordering north-west Central African Republic and north-east Cameroon. According to Barnabas Aid, at least 17 people were killed, including (according to Catholic media) an infant. ‘Among the dead were a pastor, Doumro Tadingao Gaston, and 12 other worshippers who were attending a prayer meeting in the village of Don. Around 20 villages in the region have been burned down, with several thousand people displaced by the violence. This follows Islamist attacks on four other southern Chadian villages a month earlier, in which two pastors were killed and many other people injured.’

In April, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported on the escalating ‘clashes between [semi-nomadic Arab] herders and [sedentary indigenous] farmers in southern Chad’. Authorities accuse ‘rebels based in neighbouring Central African Republic [CAR] of igniting the trouble’. According to Chadian General Ahmat Dari Bazine, the rebels are aiming ‘to create problems between herders and farmers, between Muslims and Christians’. One Christian leader warns (in personal correspondence) that there is a ‘drift towards genocide of some villages and communities… [as] people speaking Fulani have attacked villages and church services killing many people including three pastors and a Catechist… There has been the move of many Fulani Communities from CAR to settle in the forest of Southern Chad. These Fulanis seem armed and ready to deal with any opposition to their ambition. Chad has experienced since last year many horrible situations in the South. The recent attack on churches and the killing of people in villages has affected the Church in Chad. The Evangelical Fellowship of Chad is sending a high-level team to access the situation, encourage Christians who are traumatised, seek ways to assist the victims, and promote peace according to the Bible…’ Please pray.

* INDIA: RELIGIOUS RIGHTS UPHELD IN GOA
Update to RLPB 647, India: Viral Hatred Spreads Through India, 1 June 2022

In May 2022 Pastors Domnic and Joan D’Souza, of Five Pillars Church in Goa (a former Portuguese colony on India’s west coast), were arrested for allegedly ‘luring’ people to convert to Christianity. Lacking an anti-conversion law, the authorities booked the couple under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act for allegedly using magic to heal and convert people. Hindu nationalist BJP MPs – including the Chief Minister – immediately got busy plotting anti-conversion legislation. The couple were subsequently bailed on health grounds. Then, in December 2022, the North Goa District Magistrate banned Pastors Domnic and Joan from carrying out religious activities in their own residence, citing communal tensions. On 19 May the Goa High Court quashed the order, ruling not only that the accusations of forced conversions levelled against the pastors were totally baseless, but that the state has a duty to extend all possible protection to its citizens to propagate their religious practice, as guaranteed under India’s constitution. Praise and thank God! And please, continue to pray for the Church in India.

* IRAN: BELIEVERS RELEASED
Update to RLPB 660, Iran: Christians Fined, Imprisoned and Punished, 31 Aug 2022

Acquitted and released: Sara and Homayoun

On 9 May an Appeal Court in Tehran acquitted Christian converts Homayoun Zhaveh (64; with advanced Parkinson’s disease) and his wife Sara Ahmadi (45; a house church leader) and ordered they be released from prison. Critically, Article 18 reports: ‘In the ruling, the appeal-court judge said that gathering with people of one’s own faith was “natural”, and having books related to Christianity was “also an extension of their beliefs”. He added that there was “no evidence” that Sara and Homayoun had acted against the country’s security or had connections with opposition groups or organisations.’ He also noted that, ‘the law has not recognised [participation in Christian home groups] as criminal activity’. This is the second time an appeal court has ruled this way. Praise and thank God! And please, continue to pray for the Church in Iran.

* IRAQ: AN EXISTENTIAL CHRISTIAN CRISIS

(left) Cardinal Sako
(right) US-blacklisted Rayan al-Kildani 
('Rayan the Chaldean'),
head of the 'Christian' Babylon Movement,
which holds 4 of the 5 seats reserved for Christians
and is aligned with the Iran-backed Shi'ite
Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
(Asia News 17 May 2023)

On Friday 12 May hundreds of Christians – including many nuns and priests – gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square to show support for Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, as tensions between the Church and Iraq’s political leaders heat up. Iraq’s electoral law mandates that five parliamentary seats be reserved for Christians. However, anyone – not just Christians – may elect those Christian representatives. Consequently, major Kurdish Sunni and Arab Shi’ite political parties work to ensure the election of corrupted Christians who – for personal gain – will advance Kurdish or Arab Shi’ite interests at the expense of the mostly indigenous Assyrian Christian community. For advocating for change and for the rights and future of Iraq’s Christians, Cardinal Sako has come under intensive attack. The current situation further exacerbates Iraq’s existential Christian crisis. Please pray.

* MALI – BURKINA FASO: DR KEN ELLIOT RELEASED

On 19 May media reported that Australian missionary Dr Ken Elliot (88) had been released from captivity in Mali and reunited with his family in Western Australia. In January 2016 Dr Elliot and his wife, Jocelyn, were abducted from their home near Djibo, in northern Burkina Faso, by terrorists linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [RLPB 341 (27 Jan 2016)]. Whilst Jocelyn was released a few weeks later, Dr Elliot was retained. As a medical doctor, he was far too useful to be let go. The jihadists released a video in July 2017 in which Dr Elliot gives his name and requests that governments do what they can to negotiate his release. From the 6:20 minute mark, he addresses his family: ‘I just want to say again, I love you all. I appreciate all your prayers and all your cares; and I look forward to one day being reunited… I pray God will bless all of you, abundantly.’ At that time many (possibly including Dr Elliot himself) suspected the terrorists would never release him, and that he would die in captivity. We do not know any details about how he came to be released. What we do know, is that his release and homecoming is a wonderful miracle of divine mercy ‘in answer to the prayers of many’ (2 Corinthians 1:11). Praise and thank the Lord! And please, continue to pray for the Church in the Sahel: Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

* PAKISTAN: CHRISTIAN TEENS CHARGED WITH BLASPHEMY

On 18 May police in Lahore’s Qurban Lines neighbourhood arrested two Christian teenagers after a passing police officer claimed to have overheard them ‘disrespecting’ Islam’s prophet Muhammad. The boys – Adil Babar (18) and Simon Nadeem (14) – deny they had even been discussing Muhammad. Adil’s father, Babar Sandhu Masih (a Catholic) told Morning Star News (MSN) that he had been inside resting after lunch when he heard a commotion. He went outside to investigate, and found a policeman named Zahid Sohail beating Simon, and Adil trying to intervene. Sohail subsequently registered a blasphemy case against the boys – a case Masih insists is absolutely baseless. Masih saw the boys briefly on 19 May. ‘Both boys were in a state of shock and fear and are still unable to understand why Sohail had gotten them arrested.’ Napolean Qayyum of the Pakistan Centre for Law and Justice told MSN that they were helping the two families and arranging legal support for their children. Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports (22 May), ‘Approximately 50 Christian families reside in the Qurban Lines area, and most of these families fled the area for fear of violence after the accusation was made.’ Please pray.

* SUDAN: CHRISTIAN FLEE KHARTOUM; CHURCHES ATTACKED

Since the conflict erupted on 15 April, Christians have been fleeing Khartoum. Many Christians were settlers from the war-ravaged Nuba Mountains and South Sudan; they have fled back into harrowing situations, exacerbating an already serious humanitarian crisis marked by food insecurity and near total absence of medical care. But not all Christians have been able to flee and for those trapped in Khartoum the situation is rapidly deteriorating. On Sunday morning 14 May, fighters belonging to Hemeti’s Rapid Support Forces attacked the Coptic Mar Girgis (St George) Church in El Musalama in old Omdurman (Khartoum’s twin city across the Nile). Three worshippers received bullet wounds to their legs, while the church guard was shot in his abdomen. Assistant bishop Anba Sarabamon was assaulted; he sustained several fractures. His residence at the church premises was destroyed and his car was stolen. The Rapid Support Forces have forcibly occupied several churches, including the Episcopal All Saints Cathedral and the Coptic Virgin Mary Cathedral in Khartoum. These church compounds include schools, dormitories, and clerical residences. Everyone living in these compounds has had to be evacuated. Please pray for the Church in Sudan.

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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