Australia: Queensland government and safe schools
The Queensland government has ignored community concerns surrounding the controversial Safe Schools programme, refusing to release the names of schools that are teaching children that their gender is fluid. The media is reporting an increased focus on sexualising children from four years old by programmes devised by La Trobe University, which is also behind the Practical Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships which asks students as young as 12 graphic sex and masturbation questions. Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said that the Federal Government should immediately defund and pull the programme out of schools as Queensland and other states ignore the Federal Government’s directive to clean up the programme and ensure parents are made aware of which schools are participating in it. ACL was refused access to the names of the schools, despite over 11,000 Queenslanders signing an e-petition calling for them to be released.
Nigeria: a midnight raid
On Sunday night, in Enugu State, an attack by more than two hundred suspected armed Fulani herdsmen left at least 48 people dead. Scores of people were critically wounded, and sixty houses and two churches completely razed to the ground. 56 people with gunshot wounds were taken to different hospitals. The state police confirmed the attack but cannot give an exact figure of people killed: however, the police and security agencies have been mobilised to curtail the situation so that it does not degenerate into all-out war. The attackers were armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades, bows and arrows, and machetes or swords. Many villagers escaped to neighbouring communities, but people in nearby towns are also worried about possible attacks from the herdsmen. Sources disclosed that the villagers had resisted the use of their farmlands as grazing fields by the herdsmen.
Syria: deadly airstrike on Aleppo hospital
At least fourteen patients and three doctors were killed on Thursday in an airstrike on a hospital in Aleppo, the charity Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says. Among those killed in the al-Quds hospital was one of the city's last paediatricians. Local sources blamed the Syrian government or Russian warplanes, but there has been no official comment. Violence in Syria has intensified recently, despite a truce. The violent upsurge comes amid reports that the Syrian army, backed by Russian air power, is gearing up for a major offensive in Aleppo. The escalation threatens to derail the peace talks. On Wednesday, the UN envoy to Syria urged the US and Russia to intervene ‘at the highest level’ to save the talks. On Tuesday an Iraqi military officer reported that Russia is resuming bombing moderate opposition fighters in Syria. President Obama called President Putin, asking him to help ‘press’ Syria to end its airstrikes that violate the ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia in February.
Egypt: Coptic teenager kidnapped for ransom
Earlier this month 13-year-old Anthonius Farag, a young Christian boy, was kidnapped in Upper Egypt. He was released twelve days later after a hefty ransom payment. This is not an isolated case. According to the Coalition of Coptic Egypt (CCE), a Coptic advocacy group, the province of Qena alone saw no less than 72 cases of kidnappings, extortion and related violence against Copts from 2011 to 2014, the most recent figures available. Those targeted for kidnapping ranged from children to the elderly, with rescue efforts often hampered by police inadequacies or unwillingness. ‘For years Copts have been pleading for help against kidnappings, but no one seems to care,’ said a local CCE coordinator. ‘Since the revolution in 2011 kidnappings have become more common in Upper Egypt, where relatively more Christians live. Families pay from EGP 250,000 to seven million to free their loved ones.’
