Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is reporting that 131 children between the ages of two and eighteen were rounded up this week by Eritrean police as they were in their Christian classes. According to CSW, the children were attending their classes at the Medhanie-Alem Orthodox Church in the capital Asmara when a truck with the policemen arrived at approximately 9:30am on February 19. The police reportedly put the children in the truck and took them to the nearby Police Station Number 1 where they registered their names and addresses. According an eye witness, after the children were put in a hall at the police station, they started to sing in a loud voice: "I am not afraid of persecution, hardships and even death. Nobody can separate me from the Love of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross and he gave me new life."
The policemen ordered the children to stop singing, saying: "You must shut-up, this is a police station", but the children continued to sing despite the threats. When the policemen turned on a television and put the volume up high to drown out the singing, the children protested. The policemen responded by beating them.
According to the CSW report (dated February 23), the children were kept at the police station from 10:00 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. The younger children, under 15 years old, were then released and told to come back on Monday with their parents. The remaining thirty young people remain in detention and were transferred to Police Stations Number 7 and Number 4.
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Eritrean leader demonstrates how he was tortured by authorities. |
("spirituals" - a term often used to describe charismatic Christians) from the country by the end of 2005. Eritrean citizens are being asked to report any "spirituals" they know.
Pray for those young people who remain in detention. Pray that they would remain faithful to Christ despite whatever they may be enduring for His sake. Pray for their parents during this difficult time. Pray for the hundreds of evangelical and charismatic Christians that are now in detention in Eritrea. Pray for their faithful witness and for their speedy release.
The Voice of the Martyrs, together with 100 Huntley Street, produced a report on the suffering of Christians in Eritrea late last year. This new video report, together with an earlier one from VOM, is available on our multimedia website, https://www.vomcanada.com/. Registration is required for this website, but is free and gives you access to multimedia resources found nowhere else on the Internet.
For more information on persecution of Christians in Eritrea, click here.
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