Eritrean authorities continue to detain Catholic Bishop Fikremariam Hagos Tsalim of Segheneity, who was arrested at the Asmara International Airport ob 15 October. After the Catholic Church queried about the situation and his whereabouts, government authorities confirmed the bishop, who turns 52 on October 23, is in their custody. Bishop Tsalim was picked up soon Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Eritrea’
Eritrean government rounds up teens from church service
Monday, September 12th, 2022Places of worship have become the latest target for the forced roundup of Eritrean teens to serve as soldiers, which clerics describe as a deteriorating situation. For two years, 15- and 16-year-olds have been taken from towns and villages. According to the sources, some are ending up on the front lines in the war in Read more
Eritrea closes all Catholic-run health facilities
Monday, June 24th, 2019The Catholic Church is accusing the Eritrean government of shutting down all Catholic-run health care facilities, leaving thousands without access to medical care. The Eritrean Catholic Church sent a letter to the ministry of health condemning the closure of its health centers in the East African nation, the BBC reports, as crackdowns against Christianity and Read more
Eritrea bishops take risks to issue protest
Friday, June 13th, 2014
Four Catholic bishops in Eritrea have taken a huge risk in issuing a statement criticising conditions in their nation. A 2014 Human Rights Watch report described the African nation as one of the most closed countries in the world, where human rights conditions are “dismal”. Indefinite military service, torture, arbitrary detention and severe restrictions on Read more
Global state of religious freedom is ‘dire’
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
The state of religious freedom around the world is “increasingly dire”, according to the chairperson of a United States agency that monitors threats to this human right. The reasons include the rise of violent religious extremism and the actions and inactions of governments, according to Dr Katrina Lantos Swett of the US Commission for International Read more
Military conscription in Eritrea cripples Church
Friday, December 7th, 2012
Military conscription in Eritrea that forces seminarians and Church workers into long periods of army service is “bleeding the Church in Eritrea to death”, according to a Catholic charity. The communist government of the north-east African state, which does not set a fixed period for military service, has kept Church workers and seminarians in the Read more