Updates on the persecuted Church – 1 August 2023

Christian charity worker and her daughter abducted in Haiti; Islamists kill 17 Christians in north-east DRC; Christian fisherman beheaded by Islamists in northern Mozambique; Humanitarian crisis worsens in Nagorno-Karabakh

• A Christian charity worker and her young daughter have been abducted in Haiti. Alix Dorsainvil – a nurse from New Hampshire, United States – is a staff member at a Haitian Christian humanitarian organisation. She and her daughter were taken from the organisation’s headquarters near Port-au-Prince on 27 July. Pray urgently for Alix and her child, asking that the Lord will keep them safe and that they will soon be free again.

• Jihadists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) claimed in early July the killing of 17 Christians in separate attacks. In the first, fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – which is affiliated to Islamic State (IS – also known as ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) – massacred 13 Christians in the Beni area of North Kivu Province. Four more Christians were killed in subsequent attacks in Ituri Province. Ask the Lord to bring an end to this ongoing violence in north-eastern DRC. Pray that he will comfort those who have lost loved ones and friends.

• A Christian fisherman in Cabo Delgado Province, northern Mozambique, was beheaded by jihadists on 9 July. According to a report in the official IS newspaper the terrorists abducted two men, both fishermen. The other man was allowed to go free because he was a Muslim. Pray for the grieving family and friends of our brother, and ask the Lord to bring an end to the Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique.

• Barnabas Aid project partners have reported that the situation in the blockaded Armenian Christian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is growing desperate. The blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only land route between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia itself, has caused acute shortages of food and medicine. Babies have been stillborn owing to malnutrition. Two children died as their desperate parents hunted for food. Two others drowned as they were searching for food. Ask the Lord to intervene and bring an end to this growing humanitarian disaster. Give thanks for practical aid sent into Nagorno-Karabakh by Barnabas.