ERITREA: Dozens captured in crackdown on Christians
“Over the last two months, Eritrean authorities have arrested dozens of Christians, including 26 college students, in a fresh crackdown.”
Renewed Crackdown on Christians
News of a fresh wave of arrests in Eritrea has recently come to light. According to the NGO Release-Eritrea, approximately 90 Christians, including several Christian students, have been imprisoned over the last two months following a renewed crackdown on religious freedom by one of the most repressive regimes on the African continent.
Sixty-four Christians were arrested in May this year in Adi Abeito, an area close to the capital city, and detained in Asmara’s 6th Police Station. Six have been released, but there is confusion regarding the whereabouts of the remaining 58 detainees, who are thought either to still be detained in the 6th Police Station or to have been moved to Mitire Prison, where conditions are extremely harsh and torture occurs routinely. During a 2009 CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide) visit to Eritrean refugees in Africa, former prisoners described Mitire, an open-air facility located in the desert, where there are poisonous snakes. There are no medical facilities, and prisoners receive very little food. The staple diet is lentil soup, although prisoners can at times bake bread from sorghum. They are made to work hard constructing buildings for officers, and most leave the facility after falling gravely ill. At least twelve Christians are known to have died in custody in Eritrea since the repression in May 2002.
Arrest and ‘Disappearance’ of 26 College Students
On 2 June, 26 college students from Mai-Nefhi College of Technology, southwest of Asmara, were arrested. Their whereabouts is yet to be confirmed although some sources report that they too may have been transferred to Mitire Prison. The circumstances surrounding these arrests are unclear; however, Release-Eritrea reports that on previous occasions the authorities have detained Christian students for alleged unwillingness to participate in Independence Day Celebrations.
Thousands of Christians Imprisoned Since 2002
In May 2002, the Eritrean Government effectively banned all but the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches of Eritrea. Since then, thousands of Christians have been detained and held in appalling conditions, often in military prisons, underground cells, or in metal shipping containers in searing desert heat. Between 2,000 and 3,000 Christians are currently being held without charge or trial. Several people have died in prison as a result of torture, treatable illnesses and malnutrition. The regime also harasses “permitted” churches. Around 1,700 Orthodox clergy of all ranks have been forced out of the church, and at least 24 are known to be detained, including the legitimate Orthodox patriarch, Abune Antonios.
To find out more, visit the Eritrea country page: www.csw.org.uk
Please pray for His encouragement and deliverance for fellow believers suffering extreme persecution in Eritrea and elsewhere in our world.
Another Mexican Drug Lord Captured!
Zetas cartel founder Jesus Enrique Rejo Aguilar and Pedro Ortega Herrera were arrested Sunday. “Mexican authorities said Monday that they had arrested a Zetas drug cartel leader who was connected with the killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent this year. Federal police captured Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, known as "El Mamito," Sunday, a top official with the agency said.
Rejon is suspected of being behind numerous deaths in northeastern Mexico, where the Zetas have been engaged in a turf battle with their former allies, the Gulf Cartel. He is also "connected to the attack against agents" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that killed Agent Jaime Zapata in February, a statement from Mexico's public safety secretary said. Mexican authorities called Rejon "one of the leaders and founders of the Zetas criminal organization." They said he was the third most powerful leader of the drug cartel, which was created by deserters of the Mexican Army's elite forces.
Rejon is also being investigated for the deaths of dozens of Central and South American migrants whose bodies where found in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas at a ranch just 100 miles south of the U.S. border. His arrest was called "a triumph for the Mexican government.”
By Rafael Romo, Senior Latin American Affairs Editor, CNN
July 4, 2011
Late breaking news from CNN on July 25 says that over 1000 involved in human trafficking have been arrested in Juarez and 20 young women were rescued from their grip. President Calderon has given Mexico's Congress 180 days to approve a new nationwide human trafficking law that will greatly streamline how authorities handle such cases across the country”. With increasing frequency, he said, criminal organizations that ship and sell drugs and weapons have added human trafficking to their repertoire. "There are thousands and thousands of cases, in a society that is still unaware of the seriousness of this crime," he said. "We have to break through this curtain ... that is hiding from the Mexicans a criminal reality that is in front of us."
Mexican President Felipe Calderon
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/07/25/mexico.human.trafficking/
Praise God for these wonderful answers to prayer and please keep praying for the arrest of drug and human trafficking criminals and the overthrow of this horrific crime against women and children.
Pray for President Felipe Calderon, his colleagues and officials that they will be given God’s wisdom and protection as they fight this battle with terrible evil. May they experience victory after victory until Mexico is fully delivered!
USA-Mexico Border Prayer Alert
Bridgebuilders Prayer Network from Arizona reports the following answers to prayer in the Mexican drug war. Praise God for His intervention as we pray!
Praises!:
• Mexico’s federal police have caught the top hitman for the Knight Templar drug gang in the western state of Michoacan, authorities said Wednesday.
• Also in Michoacan, authorities announced the seizure of 44 metric tons of chemicals used to produce methamphetamine.
• Mexican solders found the largest marijuana plantation ever detected in Meixo, a huge field covering almost 300 acres (120 hectares), the Defense Department said Thursday. The plantation is four times larger than the second biggest marijuana fields ever found by authorities.
• Pinal county deputies seized more than 1,800 pounds of marijuana in the Vekol Valley, a well-known smuggling corridor. The marijuana had a street value of more than $1 million.”
They ask our continued prayer for the following issues:
Pray:
• For officials to see the plans of the smugglers with new eyes. May they be alert to all situations and not become complacent in their watching.
• For freedom from drug addiction so there will be no need to supply the demand.
• Especially for the young people to not be drawn into this lifestyle.
Prayer Alert – 6 Million North Koreans in Jeopardy – Need for Immediate Food Aid
North Korea’s food shortage has reached a crisis point because the agricultural sector was affected by torrential rains and the coldest winter in 60 years. Six Million are living “on the knife edge” and will go hungry without food aid according to the World Food Program. Please pray for the $224 million needed—that it will be supplied quickly and get to those who are suffering want.
Prayer Initiative for North Korea (PINK), September 19-22, 2011
Prayer Initiative of the Organizers of Several Korean Prayer Organizations Supported by the IPC:
1. We want to bring together about 300 local and 100 foreign prayer leaders from all over the world to pray for critical breakthroughs regarding the issues regarding North Korea and for its liberation.
2. We also want PINK 2011 to be a stepping-stone for the World Prayer Assembly, May 14-18, 2012 in Jakarta, Indonesia—more information available at www.wpa2012.org.
2.1 We aim to download strategies from the heaven for the global prayer issues of this generation: Islamization of the globe, the homosexual agenda, increasing natural disasters, restructuring of the global economy, etc.
2.2 We want to connect various prayer networks all over the world to be united in focused prayers for these things.
3. We expect that nation-wide prayer networks can emerge in Japan, China, and Korea, and that these networks can be joined with each other to form an East Asian prayer network.
A Call to Prayer for the Liberation of North Korea
Korea is the only divided country n the world and many people in North Korea are dying in hunger and oppression every day. Several million have already perished under the regimes of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The appalling human tragedies we see there have come about through the spirit of communism and idolization of egocentric leaders. The current rising prosperity of South Korea is a huge contrast, much of it certainly resulting from the influence of the gospel and its vigorous prayer movement.
To bring down the barriers around North Korea and set the people there free, we believe that God is calling the nations, including those who delivered His gospel to South Korea in the past, to pray together for the decisive breakthroughs we need to see in the North. Pyongyang was once called the “Jerusalem of the East” during the 1907 revival that swept Korea, so we believe that as we pray, the Lord is able to transform and restore North Korea to its former spiritual greatness.
We do not believe that this is only a matter of North Korea itself. As this most oppressive national situation on earth is death with by bringing down barriers and setting the people free, we will also see the ancient doors in the other nations open, and the King of Glory come in to reign. ‘Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.’ (Psalm 24:7).
The current situation in North Korea cries out for an international prayer initiative like this. These are some of the ways it has been described in the media and by those who have been there as eyewitnesses:
• Largest prison camp in the world
• Worst human rights violating country
• Worst persecutor of Christians
• 4 million North Koreans have died of starvation since 1995
• Economy “literally collapsed, operating at about 20%” due to adherence to juche central planning failures
• Famine again stalks the land
• 500,000 fled to China for survival, mostly women and 80% of them raped and sexually trafficked
• 1 million killed in concentration camps with cruel brutality
• North Korean people “the most isolated, most persecuted, and most suffering”
Please pray with us for what we believe will be a history-shaping initiative for the last divided nation. God brought down the Berlin Wall, uniting East with West Germany, after a concerted strategic prayer initiative. He also united black and white South Africa on the verge of Bloody civil war as His people prayed so a new nation was born. He can do the same for Korea, liberating the North and reintegrating it peacefully with the South. Let’s believe Him for this to happen!
Prayer Concerns for PINK:
1. Please pray for PINK 2011 and its effective organization.
2. Pray for the right ministry leaders and intercessors to take part from within South Korea and around the world.
3. Ask the Lord to unite us and give us His strategies for the issues of our time and for breakthrough in North Korea.
4. Prayer for a documentary prayer video on North Korea being prepared now that will help rally prayer around the world.
5. Pray for the formation of a regional prayer network for NE Asia.
Thank for your support for this initiative and for His healing and transformation of the Korean peninsula!
For more information about the PINK initiative, please contact Youngchae Song of All Nationals Intercessors, one of the sponsoring bodies in the new national prayer network that is organizing this prayer initiative. His email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
