Updates on the persecuted Church
Barnabas Fund, 10 May 2023 (excerpts)
- More than 50 people from the Christian-majority Kuki tribal group have been killed in anti-Christian violence that has raged in Manipur, India, since 4 May. About 114 church buildings have been burned down and there have been targeted attacks on around 67 Kuki villages.
- Iranian Christian converts Homayoun Zhaveh, 64, and his wife Sara Ahmadi, 45, were acquitted and released from prison on 9 May. The appeal court judge ruled there was “no evidence” that Homayoun and Sara had acted against national security.
- 2 of the 276 “Chibok girls” abducted by Boko Haram Islamist terrorists in April 2014 were rescued by the Nigerian military on 21 April 2023. Pray for more than 100 “Chibok girls” who have not returned home.
- Terrorists on Sunday 7 May abducted more than 40 people from a Baptist Church in Kaduna State, Nigeria. 15 people escaped, and 25 are still captive.
- A Christian wedding photographer and the Muslim couple who hired him have been accused of “blasphemy” in the Pakpattan District of Punjab, for taking photos of the newlywed couple at a Muslim shrine on 30 April.
- Six Libyan Christians who were arrested separately earlier this year are facing the death penalty as apostates for having converted from Islam and proselytising others in the Muslim-majority country.