February 15, 2023
Sunita Munawar underwent surgery after an acid attack on February 1.
- Islamic State Mozambique (ISM) announced the killing of five Christians in the village of Chapa in Cabo Delgado Province on February 4. In a statement the Islamists said that “the soldiers of the Caliphate … captured five Christians and slaughtered them, praise be to God”. Pray for all those at risk of such violence in northern Mozambique, especially our brothers and sisters.
- The Mexican Senate of the Republic (the upper house of Mexico’s parliament) has backed recognition of the Armenian Genocide in a vote held on February 8. Senators urged the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs to officially recognize the genocide. Meanwhile on the same day, the French Senate voted for recognition of the genocide perpetrated against Assyrian Christians; France already recognizes the Armenian Genocide. Between 1893 and 1923 around 3.75 million Armenian, Assyrian, Greek and Syriac Christians perished in the Ottoman Empire in a policy of extermination of Christian minorities. Give thanks for increased awareness of these events, and pray that this will prevent further such atrocities.
- Sunita Munawar, 19, a young Pakistani Christian woman, is in hospital after a Muslim man, Kamran Allah Bux, threw acid on her while she was getting off a bus in Karachi on February 1. Sunita is receiving treatment for burns to her face, right hand and right ankle. Bux admitted his crime, saying that he threw acid at Sunitra for rejecting his proposal that she convert to Islam and marry him. Sunita’s family had previously complained to police about Bux’s unwanted advances but had been ignored. Pray that Sunita will experience spiritual, emotional and physical healing and that justice will be administered to act as a deterrent against harassment of Christian girls and women in Pakistan.
- Cyclone Gabrielle severely struck New Zealand’s North Island on February 13 just two weeks after the same region experienced record downpours and flooding. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins described the cyclone as the biggest weather event to hit New Zealand in the past century. Our Auckland office has been forced to close because of the severe weather conditions. Please pray for protection of Barnabas staff and for the whole population of Auckland and the affected region as they come to terms with the devastation.
