Source: http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/
Date: September 6, 2023
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 709
AZERBAIJAN & SUDAN: LONG-PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS FACE STARVATION
By Elizabeth Kendal
AZERBAIJAN: CHRISTIAN CRISIS FOR ARMENIANS IN N-K
BACKGROUND: Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K) is a mountainous Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan. Prior to November 2020, Artsakh – i.e. N-K and its surrounds – was autonomous and protected by Armenia. However, on 27 September 2020, Azerbaijan – with support from Turkey and sophisticated weapons from allies Turkey, the US and Israel – launched a war to seize control of Artsakh. RLPB warned: ‘Make no mistake… Turkey and Azerbaijan have genocidal intent’ [RLPB 570 (7 Oct 2020)]. Whilst a Russia-brokered ceasefire, signed on 10 November 2020, did halt the Azeri-Turkic advance, it left the 120,000 Armenians of what remained of N-K in an exceedingly vulnerable position. With all the lowlands contiguous with Armenia lost, the only link between Armenia and N-K was the Lachin Corridor, which would be monitored by Russian peacekeepers. RLPB posed the question: ‘Is this a case of genocide averted or genocide postponed?’ [RLPB 575 (11 Nov 2020)]
SIEGE: On 12 December 2022 fake ‘eco-activists’ sponsored by the Azerbaijani government blockaded the Lachin Corridor essentially besieging the Armenian Christian enclave [RLPB 677 (25 Jan 2023)]. Eventually, on 15 June, Azerbaijan officially closed the Lachin Corridor and set up a military checkpoint to enforce the siege, severing all access to food, water, medicines, fuel, gas, electricity etc. RLPB warned: ‘the stage is being set for genocide’ [RLPB 702 (19 July 2023)].
Stepanakert, N-K, 23 June 2023, 30,000 children without food. (Tatevik Hayrapetyan via X)
Armenian Lives Matter!
STARVATION LOOMS: On 7 August Luis Moreno Ocampo, a former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) released a report in which he argues that the blockade of the Lachin Corridor ‘should be considered a Genocide against the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.” … Starvation,’ he said, ‘is the invisible genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.’ Multiple convoys loaded with humanitarian aid remain holed up at the Lachin Corridor checkpoint having been denied entry into N-K. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo [who championed the cause of Asia Bibi] accompanied the French convoy. She writes (30 Aug): ‘Here at the Lachin Corridor, we testify that no humanitarian aid can enter Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] in total violation of human rights. Our 10 humanitarian aid lorries were blocked. A humanitarian crisis is underway, it is urgent.’ The siege is entering its final stage. People have started to die of malnutrition, while miscarriages and stillbirths have risen by a reported 30 percent. Hospital and supermarket shelves are all bare. Bread (if you can get it) is rationed at 200g per person per day. State reserves of flour and fuel are almost totally depleted. Winter approaches. Genocide looms.
SUDAN: CHRISTIAN CRISIS FOR NUBA IN SOUTH KORDOFAN
BACKGROUND: On 15 April 2023 conflict erupted in Khartoum between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as the two forces commenced a battle for supremacy. The conflict quickly spread to the non-Arab periphery. Genocide is again being perpetrated in Darfur, and full-scale civil war looms over South Kordofan (home to over a million Christians; most of whom live in the Nuba Mountains; many of whom are genocide survivors). In early June, with the SAF distracted, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (al-Hilu faction) exploited the opportunity to take over several SAF compounds around South Kordofan’s capital, Kadugli. [The SPLM-N Hilu faction defends the interests of South Kordofan’s non-Arab, non-Muslim, predominately Christian Nuba tribes.] On 12 June the SAF launched its first air-strikes on the Nuba Mountains since 2016 [RLPB 698 (21 June 2023)]. By mid-August the SPLM-N had taken around 10 bases from the SAF, along with the Karakaya oil facility south of Dilling, meeting very little resistance. In the process the SPLM-N (Hilu) has expanded its territorial control of the state from roughly half to about 60 percent.
Women and children in Nuba Mts protest the targeting and killing of Nuba people across Sudan (2022). - via Dabanga 7 April 2023
Nuba Lives Matter!
SIEGE-LIKE CONDITIONS: Save the Children, which maintains an office in Kadugli, reports (2 September): ‘Fighting escalated on 14 August, forcing over 50,000 people – including at least 30,000 children – to be displaced across the town of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State. Roadblocks have created a siege-like situation, with food stocks in Kadugli Town fully depleted, and attempts to bring in more supplies failing.’ Reporting from Khartoum, Zeinab Mohammed Salih explains (The Guardian, 20 Aug): ‘The RSF has taken control of the strategic town of Ed Dubeibat [Ed-Dibebat/Dibebad in South Kordofan’s far north-west], which links South Kordofan to the rest of Sudan with a network of roads and railway. The SAF has blocked the roads linking Kadugli and Dilling [60km south of Ed-Dubeibat and 130 north of Kadugli]’ ostensibly to trap those hoping to flee. According to a local women’s rights activist, the situation has deteriorated since the government closed the road connecting Khartoum to Kordofan and Darfur, saying now every vehicle on the road is considered a military target.
STARVATION LOOMS: Sudan Tribune (22 Aug) quotes South Kordofan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) which warns: ‘There is a dire shortage of food and nutrition supplies in Kadugli town. The last food distributions for three months were in May, and those supplies will only last families until the end of this month [August]. Other humanitarian stocks in Kadugli, especially health and nutrition supplies are also running low.’ Save the Children’s Country Director in Sudan, Dr Arif Noor adds: ‘In many ways [Kadugli] is under siege, as food stocks have totally run out and there is no way to replenish them. Those who remain and are injured will not get the medical treatment they need to survive. There is a very real risk that children will start dying from hunger… The international community needs to recognise and treat the conflict in Sudan as the large-scale emergency that it is, and act accordingly.’
PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR MERCIFUL GOD WILL:
- ‘look and see’ (Lamentations 1:11).and be moved to act on behalf of his imperilled people: Christian Armenians besieged in Nagorno-Karabakh and Christian Nuba suffering siege-like conditions in South Kordofan. May the Lord of the Breakthrough (2 Sam 5:20) open the way for life-saving humanitarian aid to be delivered to those in need.
- move in the hearts of those who have the potential to be peacemakers, and those who have authority and responsibility to negotiate solutions, for the saving of many lives; may the Lord grant them courage, conviction and direction. May the Lord of the Breakthrough (2 Sam 5:20) intervene in Azerbaijan and Sudan that his children might be free to lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
May the world – and especially the Church – cease to be an impassive passer-by (Lamentations 1:11-12a).