In Depth:  war

Luke Randall

Church services have been cancelled as fighting continues to intensify in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – with 70 Christians found beheaded in one church.

M23 rebels, who have been seizing territory since early 2022 with the help of around 4,000 Rwandan troops, now control the two of the largest cities in DRC - Goma and Bukavu.

letter from Democratic Republic of Congo

James Stileman

‘Those who live in Goma live in fear. They do not know what is next. They ask why the international community has looked the other way.’

Those are the words of someone I saw in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) just a few months ago – and who, with his family, is now out of his home, having being compelled to flee as rebel forces advanced.

Iain Taylor

‘We are sleep deprived and anxious,’ evangelicals at the centre of the Middle East conflict have told en, ‘but we keep faith in God.’

As the conflict involving Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran reached ever-higher temperatures, staff at Christian TV station SAT-7 reported how they are caught right in the heart of the terrifying situation.

Iain Taylor

Christians working in Mozambique are becoming increasingly concerned about the human cost of the wave of violence now sweeping south across the country.

The persecuted-church agency Open Doors reports that over 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced from their homes in northern Mozambique following a sharp rise in attacks by Islamist militants.

With tensions remaining high in the region despite Russia’s recent military pullback from the Ukrainian border, evangelicals on both sides of the border have spoken out wanting peace.

The Russian Evangelical Alliance has led calls to ‘restore the peaceful relations between the peoples of both countries’, while churches in Ukraine have been encouraged to ‘pray and fast for the peace in our land’.

Dramatic footage of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza strip was captured by Christians from an outreach organisation to Muslims, who were about to begin a prayer meeting.

Members of the Hope For Ishmael ministry – which was founded by former terrorist sniper Tass Abu Saada after he came to Christ – were gathering for evening prayers on Zoom when their team leader managed to grab pictures of a huge nearby explosion.

In a Facebook post, the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East is calling on its partners throughout the world to join them and all Armenians in their call for justice and peace.

Further, it is urging people to pray to Almighty God to ‘let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (Amos 5.24) in response to ongoing problems in Nagorno-Karabagh, a region disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan.