First Photos from Aid Distribution
We just received pictures back from our representative in Ethiopia who delivered the first batch of aid to the displaced! So far, we’ve sent enough to feed 1000 victims of the violence that displaced 10,000 Christians when Muslim mobs burned down 69 churches and 30 Christian homes in the first week of March.
Through church officials, we bought and distributed 110 pounds of teff (cereal used as a staple food to make injera/Ethiopian bread) to each of 200 families in three different villages who have just recently returned from displacement. Each family has about five members on average. This is only our first round of aid – we plan to continue providing the displaced with food and clothing, and also to begin to help them rebuild their churches.
Many of the 10,000 Christians who were displaced by the recent violence in Ethiopia are now returning to their villages. While we welcome this development, we remember that some of these believers do not even have homes to return to, and most are returning to devastated crops, harvests, and property. With the farming season beginning, Christians do not even have seeds to plant due to the total destruction wrought by the Muslim mobs.
In addition to these challenges, there is still the threat of further violence. While a large military presence still remains in the area to help ensure the security of Christians, the Muslims know that their presence is only temporary and are telling the Christians that “once the military leaves, we will start killing you.”
Some Christians have not returned to their homes because they still fear for their lives. One Christian that we learned of told us that he is a convert from Islam. The Muslims in his village threatened to kill them if he returned, saying that he could not live among them as a Christian. He and six members of his family are still displaced. His situation is surely one of countless.
Please continue to keep our brothers and sisters in prayer as they must now struggle to re-esablish their lives in a still hostile environment.
Interview with Ethiopian Church Leader
Click “play” on the file below to hear an interview with ICC’s Jonathan Racho and a church leader from the area in Ethiopia where Christian churches and homes were burned to the ground by Muslim mobs in the first week of March. The church leader describes the situation for the 10,000 displaced Christians and what Christians around the world can do to help stand with our brothers and sisters.
We want to thank everyone who has shown their support for our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia through your prayers, encouragement, and financial gifts. We just sent our representative in with the first batch of supplies and have provided about a thousand of the displaced with food to sustain them for another week. Your generosity has been such a blessing to these believers and we hope to send a second supply of food and clothing in very shortly. We will continue to pour out as long as we have funds to give. We’re really just your bridge to bless your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our representative sent us pictures of some of the 10,000 displaced from a previous visit (see below). Stay tuned for pictures of the Ethiopians who have received the food and clothing that your gifts have helped to provide! We hope to have those up in the coming days.
Amharic Interview on Voice of America
This one’s for our Ethiopian / Amharic-speaking followers. ICC’s Jonathan Racho gave an interview to Voice of America this week regarding the crisis in Ethiopia – if you understand Amharic, we encourage you to listen to the interview here.
Also, if you have any Ethiopian friends, please pass this link along for their information.
The first part of the interview is the Muslim perspective – claiming that the alleged desecration of the Quran that has been cited as the cause of the attack occurred when Muslims found a Quran in the toilet of a church. Though the man they interviewed cited this as the immediate cause of the attacks, he also mentioned that one of the primary reasons for the attack was evangelism by Christians in Muslim areas.
Seeking Justice for Ethiopia
We just want to say thanks to everyone who has already sent gifts to help the 10,000 displaced Ethiopian Christians. We’ve truly been blessed by your heart to help these suffering brothers and sisters! In addition to giving, you can also help these Ethiopian Christians by speaking out for justice on their behalf. We’ve launched a petition to ask for exactly this! It takes just minutes and will hopefully have a tremendous impact – Ethiopia receives millions of dollars in US aid and is usually quite responsive to this sort of pressure.
It’s simple. Click here to review the full petition, and then click here to sign.
You can forward the link to this blog to your friends through the share icons below and ask your friends to sign, as well! You can also print the petition and collect signatures at your church, school, or other venue and mail them to us at:
International Christian Concern
PO Box 8056
Silver Spring, MD 20907
Another Victim
ICC Sends Staff to Investigate
ICC has sent an Ethiopian staffer to the scene of the recent violent attacks against Christians in Ethiopia to gather information and investigate the attacks. We have been able to confirm that at least two Christians, not one, were killed during the attack. The second victim, a woman, was stabbed and died after she reached a hospital for treatment.
Our investigation has uncovered more detail on the attacks. We are being told from eyewitnesses that the attacks started on March 2 when Muslims came out of a mosque en masse screaming, “Allah Akbar“ (God is great). Then they started to burn churches. After that, they burned the homes of church leaders.
More Impending Attacks
After the attacks, the Muslims publicly announced through loudspeakers that this attack is only the beginning, and that they only wanted to send a warning to the Christians. They threatened that more attacks are coming and more Christians will be killed in the future attacks.
Help Is Desperately Needed
There are 10,000 displaced Christians in the area of the attacks. ICC is working with church partners on the ground to supply emergency food packs of flour, rice, oil, and sugar. Incredibly, $5 will supply one Christian with food for a week or a new set of clothes.
ICC will match your gift dollar for dollar. So if you give $5, ICC will give another $5. ICC is matching up to $10,000 in a bid to bring in funds for this time-sensitive effort. You can donate by either using the link on the right (please type “Ethiopia” in the note) or calling us at 1-800-ICC-5441.
Stay tuned for more information!
Muslims War Against Ethiopian Christians
Beginning on March 2nd in an Islamic area of Ethiopia, Muslims went on a rampage beginning with an assault on the church in Asendabo.
ICC and others alerted the world and called on the Ethiopian government to intervene. Sadly, they could not or would not stop the Muslim attacks. After a week, when the smoke cleared, the damage was evident. The Muslims had burned down the homes of 30 Christian leaders, they had killed one Christian, wounded several others, and burned down 69 churches, a Bible school, and a Christian orphanage.
Here is an account from just one of the attacks.
On March 8, armed Muslims entered the home of an elderly Christian leader who had founded a church in a nearby Muslim village. When the militants began to assault the church leader, his grandson rushed to intervene, screaming at
the men to leave his grandfather.
The Islamists stopped assaulting the grandfather and turned their attention to the young man – swinging at his head and arms with their machetes. He sustained three wounds to his head and one on his hand before the men proceeded to
rob the home and leave the man for dead.
The young man’s family was forced to make a three hour journey on foot to bring him to a hospital in a nearby city, where he is still receiving treatment.
This family’s story is only one of the many Christian families whose homes were robbed or burned to the ground. The violence erupted after a group of Muslims falsely accused Christians in the area of desecrating the Quran. One Christian leader told ICC that a radical Muslim group that fights to establish an Islamic state in Ethiopia is responsible for the attack.
While local police and government did nothing to stop the attacks – allowing for days of unmet violence – Ethiopia’s federal government eventually stepped in to attempt to put a stop the violence and removed the city’s local Muslim administrator for his failure to protect the Christians. Some reports indicate that 130 Muslims believed to be involved in the violence have been arrested so far.
THE DISPLACED NEED OUR HELP
The violence has displaced more than 10,000 Ethiopian Christians – leaving the churches in the area scrambling to provide basic necessities for the persecuted. Right now, the displaced are in immediate need of food and clothing. ICC, in partnership with Churches on the ground, is providing emergency food relief packs of flour, rice, oil, and sugar or clothing. A gift of $5 can feed one person for a week or provide sufficient clothing for one person.
Christians are in crisis as we speak. Will you please give generously to bring help to those in need?
If you would like to give the gift of food or clothing, just click here to give to our Community Rebuilding fund. Please type “Ethiopia” in the note.
