The U.S. State Department has urged Americans to “depart Haiti now” after kidnappers threatened to kill 17 missionaries, including 16 Americans unless they receive $17 million while the child of an evangelical pastor was shot dead.
A senior government official saw proof that at least some of the 17 Christian Aid Ministries missionaries who were kidnapped in Haiti last month are still alive, Reuters reported on November 5. Christian Aid Ministries is calling for continued prayer for the safe release of 16 Americans and one Canadian, including five children, who were abducted by the 400 Mawozo gang on October 16.
As US-based Christian Aid Ministries continues to call for the release of their seventeen missionaries kidnapped in Haiti last month, the families of 26 Americans still held hostage around the world have expressed frustration with the Biden administration that more is not being done to secure their loved ones’ release, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
Seventy-nine-year-old Pastor Jean Pierre Ferrer Michel has been released from captivity in Haiti after members of the 400 Mawozo gang dressed as National Police officers abducted him and a male parishioner on October 3, CBN News reports.
An 80-year old American citizen and pastor Jean Pierre Ferrer Michel remains in captivity after being abducted by gunmen in Haiti on October 3, nearly two weeks before 16 American missionaries and a Canadian were kidnapped together by a Haitian gang on the island, the Miami Herald (MH) reports. Both the US Embassy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have reportedly been contacted about Pastor Michel’s situation on account of his US citizenship.
The Hindu-led government of southern India’s Karnataka state has reportedly launched an investigation into Christian activities linked to alleged “forced conversions” to Christianity.
Time is running out for the 17 Haiti missionaries who are being held hostage, according to the gang leader behind their abduction.
Haiti’s government said Tuesday that a gang that abducted American and Canadian missionaries is asking for $17 million – or $1 million each – to release them.
Some 17 American Christian missionaries and their families, including children, have been kidnapped by a notorious gang in Haiti, Christian and security sources say.
The United States is potentially facing its biggest hostage crisis in decades Tuesday, with a key U.S. general confirming that at least hundreds of Americans are left behind in Afghanistan.
Many of thousands of Afghan Christians are fleeing through mountains and other challenging terrains to neighboring nations amid fears they will be killed by Afghanistan’s ruling Islamist Taliban group, according to multiple sources.
Islamic militants have created an online hit list that encourages Muslims to assassinate Christian leaders in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Worthy News established Friday.
Christian missionaries and church leaders already suffering persecution in several areas are among those dying of severe symptoms of COVID-19 raging in India, aid workers say.
Eight Christians who were abducted by gunmen in Nigeria’s Kaduna state last month have been freed and were taken to hospital for medical evaluation, International Christian Concern reports. Nigeria currently ranks 9th on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be Christian: believers in the northern region and in the Middle Belt are vulnerable to abduction, violence, and murder at the hands of Islamic extremist groups such as militant Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram/ISIS West Africa.
Religious minorities in Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco suffer persecution through the application of “harsh and disproportionate” laws, International Christian Concern reports.
Terrorists are demanding a ransom of N50million ($122,000) for the release of eight Christian evangelists they abducted in Nigeria’s Kaduna state on Friday, International Christian Concern reports.
A Hindu nationalist leader in India’s Madhya Pradesh state has demanded that local authorities shut down all churches in the state’s tribal areas, falsely claiming that Christians are carrying out mass conversions on “gullible indigenous peoples,” International Christian Concern reports. Head of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Azad Prem Singh threatened violent action if his January 11 demand is not met within 30 days.
In regions where Christians risk intense persecution and even death because of their faith, Wycliffe Associates is helping believers translate the Bible for their language communities through its Tablets for National Translators initiative.
A Swiss missionary was executed by Islamic extremists in Timbuktu, Mali last month, Christianity Today reports. Beatrice Stöckli was kidnapped in January 2016 by an Islamist terrorist organization connected to Al-Qaeda.
A Haitian pastor and his wife who had immigrated to the US were found murdered upon returning to their island as missionaries, the Christian Post reported Sunday. Pastor Jean Phillippe-Quetant (57) and his wife Erna Plancher-Quetant (54) were shot dead in their home during the course of an armed robbery. The couple are survived by five children.