Yemen: Humanitarian crisis and ethnic cleansing
Thousands of tonnes of food aid for Yemen have been diverted from the port of Aden because of heavy fighting between Saudi-backed forces and Shia Muslim Houthi fighters. The city has been cut off from supplies for months, creating a humanitarian crisis for hundreds of thousands of desperate people. Aden has no running water or electricity, and food shops are empty. Yemen imports 90% of its food, and an estimated 16 million people (more than 60% of the population) need humanitarian assistance. Elsewhere ethnic cleansing is happening. Fewer than 100 Jews are believed to be living in Yemen, and the number could soon drop to zero, as Houthi rebels expand their control of the country. The Houthis are Shia Muslims, supported by Iran, and their chant is ‘Death to America. Death to Israel, Allah curse the Jews’. Most Jews fled some time ago to Israel. The remnant are under virtual house arrest and victims of persecution. See:
Syria: IS fighting, Christian retaliation and Assad’s bombs vandalising Syria
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights a Syrian Christian fighter from the Syriac Military Council beheaded a militant of Islamic State in northwest Syria as revenge for the terror group’s violence against the region's minority Christians. The Christian fighter, who was not identified, carried out the execution last Thursday in the village of Tal Shamiram in Syria's Hasakeh province, where Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, holds large areas of the countryside. They’ve seized more than 95,000 square kilometres of Syria and are now in control of the majority of Syria’s gas and oilfields - providing the terror group with one of its biggest sources of income. Meanwhile over the weekend close to 200 civilians in the Aleppo neighbourhood of Al-Shaar died from more aerial barrel bomb attacks carried out by the army of President Bashar al-Assad. See also:
Afghanistan: News from a missionary
‘Daily we receive reports of more atrocities, higher death tolls, repeated attacks on NGOs and guest-houses with foreigners as victims. Pray that this spring offensive may soon come to an end and that the whole Taliban movement will be crushed. Signs of an alliance of the Taliban with IS come from the North and East. Pray against the demonic powers that drive those people. UN statistics show civilian casualties rose by 16% this year. We believe our prayer is the decisive weapon in a war that cannot be won in the natural by all the world’s superpowers. Many foreigners have left the country, so pray for the local believers not to be discouraged, but to share their beliefs with others and remain faithful in the midst of adversity. There have been months of political infighting over the appointment of the crucial post of defence minister. Pray for Masum Stanakzai, appointed to this position on 24 May.’
Burundi: It's enough to make you cry
The following is from a missionary working in Burundi: ‘I'm sitting in a café having a snatched lunch alone, and I'm crying. Our teams on the frontline urgently need more resources to help save lives. The sound of gunfire in the capital is normal now. Most people are petrified. Suffice to say, there's plenty to make one weep right now after last week's failed coup and the deteriorating political and security situation. My colleague M’s 3 year-old daughter is so traumatised by the shooting that every time she hears a gunshot she pees herself - she's now peeing herself multiple times. C rings me, hunkered down in her hovel with her daughter and granddaughter, a gun battle going on outside. I would do anything for C, but I can’t swoop in through the bullets to save my dear friend. My widower buddy H tries to keep his six children's morale up, and L’s wife has just died in childbirth. He now has four starving children.’
