Renewed fighting in Mali revives Christian anxieties

Renewed fighting in Mali revives Christian anxieties
A Malian child waits to see receive a free consultation at a medical clinic in Gao, Mali.16 May 2014UN Photo/Marco Dormino   Renewed fighting and re-occupation of a number of towns in northern Mali by armed Tuareg groups has renewed anxieties among the region’s Christian minority. On May 21, a . . . Read More

Freedom of religion an issue ‘whose time has come’

Freedom of religion an issue ‘whose time has come’
Freedom of religion and belief is an issue “whose time has come”, the vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said yesterday. During the presentation of two reports on religious freedom at the European Parliament in Brussels on Feb. 12, commission Vice Chairwoman Katrina Lantos Swett said . . . Read More

Africa rises on World Watch List of worst persecutors

Africa rises on World Watch List of worst persecutors
Africa, where Christianity spread fastest during the past century, now is the region where oppression of Christians is spreading fastest, a new report says. The two-year-old Arab Spring has toppled autocrats across Northern Africa, but it also has energized militant Islamist movements that have killed hundreds of Christians and endanger . . . Read More

Kidnapped Swiss Christian freed amid Mali’s unrest

Separatist Islamist rebels released a Swiss Christian woman kidnapped by a private militia on April 15 amid political turmoil in Timbuktu, Mali, according to a Swiss foreign ministry statement. Armed members of the militant Islamic group Ansar Dine handed Beatrice Stockly to Swiss diplomats on Tuesday (April 24), Reuters reported. . . . Read More