SURREY, ENGLAND – Thirteen Eritrean hostages currently held in northern Sinai, close to the Israeli border face a bleak future.

They’ve issued a desperate appeal for international intervention after being informed that they will be sold to organ traffickers if a large ransom is not paid for them.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that in an appeal publicized by Italian NGO EveryOne Group, the hostages said, “We have been beaten, tortured, humiliated in the most atrocious fashion. We have now received an ultimatum from our persecutors: if our families do not pay US$33,000 per head within 24 hours, we will be sold to clandestine clinics that traffic in human organs.”

CSW said the hostages continued, “We are calling on the civilized countries, religious people who abhor these atrocities, the United Nations and the European Union not to abandon us. If we had been Europeans or Americans, would you have left us in this terrible condition? We are young men and women who have fled from a country that persecuted us.”

CSW said that Eritrean citizens are fleeing the repressive regime of President Isaias Afwerki at a rate of 1,000 people per month, conservatively speaking. Eritrea has one of the world’s worst human rights records, including stringent restrictions on religious freedom.

Tens of thousands of Eritreans are thought to be imprisoned in the country’s many detention facilities, including around 3,000 Christians. CSW said hundreds of Eritrean refugees, including women and children, have fallen into the hands of human traffickers.

Many are still held hostage in purpose-built camps in the Sinai Desert, CSW reported. There they face harassment, extreme sexual abuse and torture until relatives or friends make large payments to secure their release. A recent CNN report also confirmed that many African refugees have organs removed from their bodies for sale, before being left to die.

Andrew Johnston, Advocacy Director at Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), said in a news release, “This group of young people is representative of many other Eritrean refugees who are being held hostage in the Sinai. It has been over a year since these hostage camps were brought to light. In some cases the people traffickers have even been identified, yet these camps still exist, and the inhumane treatment of these refugees, along with the threat of organ trafficking, continues.”

He added, “We urge the Egyptian authorities to take effective action to end human trafficking within their borders, and to ensure that perpetrators of these appalling crimes are brought to justice. Human trafficking is a transnational crime carried out by criminal syndicates, and ought to be of international concern. It is therefore vital that the international community assists in combating this affront to human dignity, and in ensuring that victims are afforded protection and refuge.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide works for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

For further information, visit www.csw.org.uk.

ASMARA, ERITREA (ANS) — Two Christians are reported to have died in separate Eritrean prisons after being refused medical treatment amid a renewed crackdown by the authorities against unregistered churches.

According to Barnabas Aid, one of the martyrs is known to be 27-year-old woman Seble Hagos Mebrahtu, who was arrested after being caught reading a Bible in her bedroom. Her death comes as a new wave of raids, which started on New Year’s Eve, saw more than 100 evangelical believers detained.

Barnabas Aid says almost an entire congregation — 41 people — from the capital Asmara was taken into custody where they are said to have endured beatings.

In a media update, Barnabas Aid says: “The following day, 27 believers from various underground churches near Asmara were rounded up by the security forces. On January 9, 35 Christians including 15 women and two elderly men in poor health were seized from a house church gathering in the town of Nakfa.”

The World Evangelical Alliance-Religious Liberty Commission (WEA-RLC) said it was no coincidence that this fresh onslaught on Christians in Eritrea began around the time of the Tunisian uprising, which ousted the country’s president.

WEA Executive Director Godfrey Yogarajah warned that as unrest spreads throughout North Africa and the Middle East, conditions for Eritrean Christians could worsen.

He said, “This may prompt President Isaias to tighten (his) grip on power leading to an even more severe persecution of political dissidents and those from unregistered Protestant Christian groups.”

Barnabas Aid says thousands of Christians are believed to be imprisoned without trial in Eritrea’s notorious detention system.
A US embassy cable recently published by WikiLeaks confirmed the deplorable conditions suffered by detained Christians and other prisoners.

Barnabas Aid said: “It paints a picture of a cramped 40 by 38 foot cell holding around 600 prisoners, where it was impossible to lie down. They were fed two pieces of bread three times a day; many were so thirsty owing to lack of water that their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths. A bucket, which served as a toilet, constantly spilled over with human waste.”

The group adds: “There is evidence of torture from the sound of screaming, and detainees being brought back to the cell by security officials badly bruised and bleeding.”

Barnabas Aid explained: “Eritrea’s Christians are among the most severely persecuted in the world; they are seen as a threat to national unity because they give their ultimate allegiance to God and not to the state. The government recognises only four religious groups: the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches, and Sunni Islam.”

WASHINGTON, DC (ANS) — Eritrean officials arrested 30 Christians for praying at a private house in Asmara, the capital on January 2. Some of the Christians were only recently released after being detained for their faith.

International Christian Concern (ICC) — www.persecution.org — has learned that Security officials arrested the Christians and took them to police station one in Asmara. Officials also detained another Christian on January 4. ICC says the detained Christians are members of the Philadelphia Church, an evangelical church outlawed in Eritrea.

In a media release, ICC explains that several churches have been forced to go underground in Eritrea since 2002 when officials required all religious groups to register. The officials only registered four religious groups: Islam, the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea.

ICC also stated that in Eritrea, more than 3,000 Christians have been detained for their faith in Christ. Most of them are kept in underground dungeons, metal shipping containers, and military barracks. Several Christians have died while imprisoned due to torture and lack of medical attention.

ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Jonathan Racho, said, “Imprisoning citizens for holding a prayer meeting is not only deplorable but also against the basic rights of citizens to peacefully enjoy their religious freedom.

“We urge Eritrea to immediately release Christians who have been imprisoned for practicing their faith. We urge Christians throughout the world to pray for their Eritrean brothers and sisters and help them in this difficult time.”

ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide.

Yemane Kahasay Andom, 43, of the Kale-Hiwot church of Mendefera died Thursday, July 23. He allegedly was secretly buried in the camp. He had spent the past 18 months in Mitire.

According to the sources, Andom had contracted severe malaria for which he was denied proper treatment. He was allegedly further weakened by continuous physical torture and solitary confinement in an underground cell two weeks prior to his death for his refusal to sign a recantation form. It is not clear what the contents of the recantation form were, but most Christians interpret the signing of such a form as the denouncement of their faith in Christ.

Andom becomes the third recorded Christian to die while being incarcerated in Mitire and the ninth in Eritrean detention centers.

Mogos Hagos Kiflom, 37, died in early January allegedly as a result of torture in Mitire. On January 16 Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom, 42, also died in Mitire as a result of ongoing physical torture and complications from his diabetes.

Eritrea is ranked No. 9 on Open Doors’ World Watch List of the 50 countries which are the worst persecutors of Christians.

“What is happening regarding the persecution of evangelicals in this small country in eastern Africa is a disgrace,” says Open Doors USA President/CEO Carl Moeller. “There is no legal recourse for those Christians who have been tossed into prison camps. Many of them face torture and death as with Andom and others. Many of them continue to keep their faith under tremendous pressure. Please join me in prayer for those still in prison camps.”

Christians in Eritrea have reported that the government has taken a turn in their tactics to suppress the evangelical faith in the country.

In a letter smuggled out of a place of detention, incarcerated Christians tell how the officials’ methods of interrogation have changed. According to the writers of the letter, interrogators are trying to force Christian prisoners to admit that their churches have been participating in work for the CIA on behalf of the United States government.

Christians in Eritrea explain that if the imprisoned believers give in to this pressure, they may be forced to testify against their church associations in a military court. A guilty verdict in this court could have severe implications for the church associations.

According to Open Doors sources, all prisoners confronted in this way have so far refused to give in, apparently resulting in severe “physical and psychological” torture.

More than 2,800 Evangelical Christians remain incarcerated in Eritrean prisons for their refusal to quit practicing their religion outside of the government approved Lutheran, Catholic and Orthodox churches. These believers are kept under harrowing conditions – facing torture, insufficient food and extreme temperatures in desert-like conditions.

Although the government has legalized worship inside the Lutheran, Catholic and Orthodox churches, there have been instances of persecution against followers from all three groups.

Prayer Points:

For God’s sustaining grace for all those who find themselves in prison in Eritrea for their faith in Christ.
For the families of all those who have died in incarceration. Pray that the Lord will be their comfort and their strength.
The government will end the persecution of evangelicals and grant freedom to all religions.

Three Christians incarcerated in military prisons for their faith have died in the past four months in Eritrea, including the death on Friday Jan. 16 of a 42-year-old man in solitary confinement, according to a Christian support organization.

Sources told Open Doors that Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom died at the Mitire Military Confinement center from torture and complications from diabetes. Asgedom was a member of the Church of the Living God in Mendefera.

His death followed the revelation this month of another death in the same prison. Mogos Hagos Kiflom, 37, was said to have died as a result of torture he endured for refusing to recant his faith, according to Open Doors, but the exact date of his death was unknown. A member of Rhema Church, Kiflom is survived by his wife, child and mother.

Read the full story at Compass Direct News.

According to local sources, the wave of house to house arrests began in Keren, Eilabered, Hagaz, Adi Tekelezan, and Deki Zeru. Further raids took place in Dekemhare, Adi Quala, Areza and Mendefera before the campaign reached Asmara on 12 December. Detained Christians were reportedly transferred to a military facility, where many were severely mistreated. Local sources indicate that an unspecified number may have died after being denied medical attention subsequent to this mistreatment.

The Eritrean government is one of the most repressive in Africa. Thousands of prisoners of conscience and belief are detained arbitrarily for indefinite periods of time in unsatisfactory facilities where conditions are life threatening and the use of torture is rife. In 2002 Eritrea’s Government ordered the closure of all churches not affiliated to the Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran or Orthodox denominations, and sought to end all other religious practices except Sunni Islam. However, members of authorised religious groups also experience detention and persecution. Most significantly, in January 2006 the legitimate Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church EOC Abune Antonios was illegally removed from office, placed under house arrest and eventually replaced by a government appointee.

The recent campaign of arrests comes amidst reports from Eritrea of increasing food insecurity, growing dissent in parts of the Eritrean armed forces and rumours of the attempted assassination on 4 December of Major General Philipos Woldeyohannes; a senior commander and a close ally of President Isaias Afewerki.

Elsewhere, a visit to Europe by a delegation headed by the Orthodox Church’s government-imposed administrator Yoftahe Dimetros and that includes the largely unrecognized substitute patriarch Bishop Dioscoros, is reportedly proving less successful than anticipated. According to a press release from the religious liberty group St. Athanasius Charitable Society SACS, while in Italy the delegation failed to gain an audience with the Catholic hierarchy, allegedly on the grounds that there had been “no prior communications with Patriarch Antonios concerning the visit”. The delegation was later denied entry into Milan’s Kidist Mariam Eritrean Orthodox Church by church leaders, who stated that it did not represent the EOC.

CSW’s Advocacy Director, Tina Lambert, said: “The resumption of mass arrests is deeply troubling. We are particularly concerned by reports indicating that some detainees may even have died from injures sustained during mistreatment. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who may now be grieving for friends and family members. We call on key members of the international community to remind the Eritrean government of its international and constitutional obligations with regard to freedom of religion and the humane treatment of prisoners, and to urge the regime to permit all detainees to have unhindered access to immediate family members, medical treatment, and legal representation”.

WASHINGTON, DC ANS – The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) says that it has learned that Eritrean officials imprisoned about 20 Christians belonging to the underground Faith Missions Church on Sunday, October 12, 2008, in Deki-Zeru, a town 30km away from Asmara, the capital.

“The Christians were holding a Sunday morning worship service when Eritrean security forces raided the church,” said an ICC spokesperson. “The Christians, including some elderly, are still in prison.

“This is not the first time that the Eritrean officials arrested members of the Faith Mission Church. On eve of Christmas in 2007, Eritrean security forces arrested 35 members of the Church in the port city of Massawa. All the 35 Christians were later released on February 16, 2008.”

According to ICC, Faith Mission Church has been carrying out evangelistic and development activities in Eritrea for over five decades. The church was forced to go underground after Eritrean officials issued a decree in 2002 in which they required all churches to register. The officials then allowed only three Christian denominations to be registered. The three registered Churches are: the Eritrean Orthodox Church, The Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea.

Officials of Eritrea have been persecuting members of both the registered and the unregistered churches. So far, more than 2000 Christians have been imprisoned in metal shipping containers, military barracks and prison cells.

“Please pray for all imprisoned Christians in Eritrea,” concluded the ICC spokesperson. “Please also call Eritrean officials in your countries and politely ask them to release the imprisoned Christians

Authorities on Tuesday (August 5) locked up eight high school students at a military training school in metal shipping containers for objecting to the burning of hundreds of Bibles, sources told Compass.

The eight male students from the Sawa Defense Training Centre in Sawa, near Eritrea’s border with Sudan, were incarcerated after military authorities confiscated more than 1,500 personal Bibles from new students arriving for the 2008-2009 academic year.

The eight students objected when military officials began burning the Bibles.

“During the time that the Bibles were set on fire, the chief commander of Sawa, Col. Debesai Ghide, gave a warning to all the students by telling them that Sawa is a place of patriotism, not a place for ‘Pentes’ [Pentecostals],’” said one source. “Eight male students to whom God gave boldness to speak against the burning of the Bibles have been taken into custody in one of the metal shipping containers that the military at Sawa uses as prison cells for Christians who have been found practicing their faith in the center.”

Reading the Bible privately, discussing Christian faith with other students, praying before or after meals alone or in groups and possessing the Bible or any other Christian literature is forbidden at the center, the source said. Students involved in such activities are liable to imprisonment and severe military punishment.

Read the full story at Compass Direct News

LOS ANGELES, July 23 (Compass Direct News) – Imprisoned and tortured for her Christian faith since December, 37-year-old Azib Simon died of malaria in Eritrea’s Wi’a Military Training Center last week.

Weakened by ongoing torture, sources said, Simon contracted malaria only a week before she died. Christians in the prison are rarely given medical attention, and the sources said authorities refused to provide treatment for Simon’s malaria.

Simon was the sister of former Eritrean television journalist Biniam Simon, who recently fled the country after abandoning his career at government controlled ERI-TV.

Azib Simon had attended the Kale-Hiwet Church in Assab, one of the independent evangelical churches that have been targeted by the country’s Marxist-leaning authoritarian regime. She was held at the notorious Wi’a Military Training Center, 20 miles south of the Red Sea port of Massawa, since her arrest in December 2007.

Prisoners at the Wi’a military camp are under constant pressure to recant their faith.

Full story at Compass Direct News.

Eritrean security police cracked down on more Christians again last week, arresting 34 evangelicals gathered for prayer and fellowship in a local home in Keren.

The police raid on Wednesday May 28 targeted members of the Berhane Hiwet Light of Life Church in Keren, Eritrea’s third largest city 200 kilometers 124 miles northwest of the capital Asmara.

All 24 men and 10 women present were taken to prison, with their children left behind. The next day security officials transferred the 10 women prisoners, all of them married, to the Adi-Abyto Military Confinement facility.

The Keren raid was the second round of arrests last week in Eritrea, where the oppressive regime has outlawed all independent Protestant churches since 2002, closing their buildings and banning gatherings in private homes.

For the full story visit Compass Direct News.