Eritrea has released a further 21 Christian prisoners, but Eritrean forces are accused of attacking churches in neighboring Ethiopia, Christian Today reported Tuesday. Despite these accusations, rights advocates believe the Eritrean release of Christian prisoners may constitute an effort to seek favor with Ethiopia’s Protestant prime minister: Eritrea has freed a total of 171 Christian prisoners since August last year.
Amnesty International has stated that the massacre of a large number of civilians in the historical city of Axum in Ethiopia’s Tigray region last year may constitute crimes against humanity, Sky News reports. It is understood that on November 28, 2020, hundreds of people, including children, were systematically executed by Eritrean forces fighting with the Ethiopian government against the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF).
At least 150 Christians remained jailed in Eritrea on Thursday after scores of more believers were unexpectedly released since late January, Worthy News learned.
The government of Eritrea has released 70 Christians who had been in prison for between two to twelve years without trial, International Christian Concern reports. However, rights advocates do not believe this action by the military dictatorship signals a change in its abusive stance toward Evangelical Christians.
Eritrea has released a further 10 Christians from one of its notorious prison facilities bringing the total to nearly 80 freed believers since September, Worthy News learned.
The Open Doors persecution watchdog has published its 2021 list of countries where it is most dangerous for Christians to practice their faith, Christianity Today reports. Published this month, the list is based on grassroots reports from Open Door workers between November 1, 2019, and October 31, 2020.
Ethiopia is in the midst of a full-blown humanitarian crisis as refugees flee to the border with Sudan and up to two million people face starvation while the government wars against a separatist group in the country’s Tigray region, CBN News reports. Among daily reports of mass killings on both sides is the reported massacre of over 700 Orthodox Christians outside their church in Tigray’s city of Aksum earlier this month.
The Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA) has reported that an estimated 750 people were recently killed by Ethiopian government forces and Amhara militia in an attack on a church in Tigray in northern Ethiopia, Christian Today reports.
The European Union has suspended some 88 million euros ($107 million) in support of Ethiopia, citing reports of ethnic-targeted killings and possible war crimes in the Tigray region.
Rebel forces in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region say they have retaken a town and shot down a military plane in a setback for the national government.
Eritrea released at least 69 Christian prisoners this month, including many detained in horrific circumstances for their faith “for up to 16 years without trial,” aid workers told Worthy News.
Eritrea has released dozens of Christians, many of whom spent a decade behind bars for their faith in Christ, well-informed rights activists say.
The World Health Organization says a new polio outbreak in Sudan is linked to an ongoing vaccine-sparked epidemic in Chad — a week after the U.N. health agency declared the African continent free of the wild polio virus.
Dozens of Christians have been detained in Eritrea in the latest government crackdown on devoted believers, advocacy representatives said Friday.
Leading rights groups and church officials will hold Thursday their annual protest and prayer vigil against the reported massive persecution of Christians in Eritrea for the first time online, amid ongoing coronavirus lockdown restrictions in Britain.
Locusts swarming across eastern Africa have now made their way out of the continent, into the Middle East, and as far as India, Pakistan, and China, though authorities in east Asia say they are not yet worried about the locusts coming further inland.
Christian aid groups, along with pesticide-wielding UN troops, are deploying to eastern Africa to fight a locust swarm that experts say is the worst to hit the region in 70 years and could grow by 500 times between now and June.
A locust swarm of biblical proportions has swept into Kenya and other parts of Africa, as the UN says that $76 million will be needed to combat the plague, which experts say could grow by five hundred times by June if not contained.
President Trump on Friday signed the authorization for an expanded travel ban against six countries who have failed to comply with a minimum standard of travel security protocols since 2017.
The UN has said that if an Ethiopian locust infestation is not brought under control then the crop-devouring insect could ‘invade’ neighboring countries.