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Islamic State (ISIS) has conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq and set up 'branches' as far away as Libya and the Sinai Desert - but now, it has set its sights on Algeria. Months after successfully conquering the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, Algerian authorities say that ISIS has attempted to expand westward to conquer the largely-desert border region between the two countries. On Thursday, the Algerian army raised its alert level to the highest level and has drafted some 50,000 troops to ward off ISIS ahead of an anticipated invasion...

A group of religious leaders and health experts yesterday called on President Obama to provide access to funding so that women who have been raped by terrorists abroad can have abortions. Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders met at St John's Episcopal Church, just opposite the White House, to raise awareness of the need to provide post-rape care, including abortions, for the victims of groups such as ISIS in Syria and Iraq and Boko Haram in Nigeria. "Women are dying now. Families are being pushed further into poverty now because this care is not available to them," said Rev Harry Knox,...

The United Nations special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, is set to recommend blacklisting the Israel Defense Forces as a terror group for regularly causing harm to children. The designation would place the IDF in the same group as terror groups such as Islamic State, Boko Haram, and the Taliban. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leaning towards leaving Israel off the list—despite heavy lobbying by the Palestinians and pro-Palestinian groups—over concern of damaging the world body’s relationship with the Jewish state. The Israeli Foreign Ministry slammed the hypocrisy of the...

Islamic militants have hacked to death at least 10 Christians in a remote village in northeast Nigeria, bringing the death toll to some 200 Christians killed within two months, officials say. Suspected fighters of Boko Haram, or 'Western education is sinful', reportedly entered Pambula-Kwamda village in Adamawa state early Friday, May 22. "The attackers went into the village around 4:00 am [local time] while residents were still asleep and used machetes to attack their victims," said Maina Ularamu, local government chairman of Madagali, in the north of Adamawa state. News of the attack was monitored by BosNewsLife Tuesday, May 26,...

The United Nations said Tuesday that Boko Haram is responsible for an “alarming spike” of suicide bombings in Nigeria that have been carried about by women and children. Girls between the ages of 7 and 17 years have been used for three-quarters of all such attacks in the region since 2014, the U.N. children’s agency reported. There have been 27 suicide bombings in the region over five months, compared to 26 in all of 2014. “Children are not instigating these suicide attacks; they are used intentionally by adults in the most horrific way.

In all the battles waged by men, one of the most effective ways to destroy the enemy is to destroy its women. Rape and sexual abuse are wartime “strategies” as old as war itself. Popular Christian writer Ann Voskamp recently visited refugees in Northern Iraq who had fled ISIS, the self-declared Islamic State. Voskamp noticed 5- and 7-year old girls among the families, but no 9-year-olds. The reason, writes Voskamp: “ISIS sells 9-year-old girls in slave bazaars… They are categorized. Stripped. And shipped naked. Examined and distributed. Sold and passed around like meat. Livestock.” ISIS “has institutionalized sexual violence and...

They’re Nigeria’s unlikely saviors – most being white, in their 50s and 60s and combat veterans of the former South African apartheid regime. But, tainted resumes notwithstanding, they’ve been getting the job done in northern Nigeria, hitting the Islamist terror group Boko Haram hard enough to send the jihadists into retreat, liberating dozens of villages and freeing hundreds of women and girls held as slaves and “bush wives” during a six-year-long reign of terror, reported London Telegraph. Boko Haram recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. In recent years, Boko Haram has slaughtered entire...

Aid to the Church in Need say 5,000 Catholics have been killed in one diocese alone People gather around the ruins of the burned Bama Market in Maiduguri, Nigeria (CNS) A new report has revealed the scale of the suffering of Nigerian Catholics at the hands of Boko Haram militants, with 5,000 Catholics killed in one diocese alone.A further 100,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Maiduguri, in the northeast of the country, have been displaced by the six-year campaign of violence conducted by the Muslim militant group, according to the Situation Report on the Activities of Boko Haram in the...

“Boko Haram came and told us they were moving out and said that we should run away with them. But we said no… Then they started stoning us. I held my baby to my stomach and doubled over to protect her,” 27-year-old Lami Musa told the Associated Press. Musa escaped along with her five-month-old baby. Boko Haram recently changed its name officially to the Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. The rescue does not mean the crisis is over, as the Nigerian government must now resolve how to reintegrate these survivors into society. It is not known exactly where...

Some of the nearly 300 girls and women freed by Nigeria’s military from the forest stronghold of Boko Haram were so transformed by their captivity that they opened fire on their rescuers, and experts said Wednesday they would need intensive psychological treatment. The military was flying in medical and intelligence teams to evaluate the former captives, many of whom were severely traumatized, said army spokesman Col. Sani Usman. He said earlier that none of the schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok a year ago appeared to be among the 200 girls and 93 women rescued Tuesday. But on...

ROME—In this far reaching, follow-up interview to a story Aleteia brought you in February, Bishop Emmanuel Badejo, who serves as Director of Communications for the African Bishops, discusses with Aleteia the latest developments regarding Boko Haram, and his fellow Nigerian bishop’s claim that he had vision of Jesus Christ, who told him the terrorist organization would be defeated through the power of the rosary.    He also offers his perspective on Hillary Clinton’s statement last week that “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed” for the sake of giving women access to “reproductive health...

LAGOS, Nigeria — After carrying out a mass rescue of 200 girls and 93 women from the forest stronghold of an Islamic insurgent group, Nigeria's military is evacuating them and plans to check their physical and mental health, the army spokesman said Wednesday. The military is flying in medical and intelligence teams to examine the females, many of whom are traumatized, said Col. Sani Usman. He earlier said that none of the so-called Chibok girls appeared to be among those rescued but later said it remains to be seen if any were among the 219 who are still missing more...

A Nigerian bishop says that he has seen Christ in a vision and now knows that the rosary is the key to ridding the country of the Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram. Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme says he is being driven by a God-given mandate to lead others in praying the rosary until the extremist group disappears. “Towards the end of last year I was in my chapel before the Blessed Sacrament… praying the rosary, and then suddenly the Lord appeared,” Bishop Dashe told EWTN News April 18. In the vision, the prelate said, Jesus didn’t say anything at...

Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme, head of the Diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria's Borno State, was in a chapel praying before the Blessed Sacrament last December when, he says, something extraordinary happened: Jesus Christ appeared holding a sword, which He offered to the prelate. According to Bishop Dashe, the moment he took the sword from Jesus' hands, it transformed into Rosary beads. He then heard Christ repeat three times, "Boko Haram is gone." The bishop recalls, "I didn't need any prophet to give me the explanation. It was clear that with the Rosary we would be able to expel Boko Haram."...

"Seventeen people have died of the mysterious disease since it broke out early this week in Ode-Irele town," said Ondo state government spokesman Kayode Akinmade. The disease, symptoms of which include headache, weight loss, blurred vision and loss of consciousness, killed the victims within 24 hours of their falling ill, he said. Laboratory tests have so far ruled out Ebola or any other virus, Mr Akinmade added. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it had information on 14 cases with at least 12 dead. "Common symptoms were sudden blurred vision, headache, loss of consciousness followed by death, occurring within 24...

Boko Haram Adopts ISIS' Bloody Religious Cleansing Strategy By Steve Dorsey April 19, 2015 The Islamic militant group Boko Haram is adopting ISIS' bloody strategy of stamping out Christianity with a frightening fervor, putting Nigeria's 70 million followers of Jesus in danger for their lives, fearful human rights advocates say. Boko Haram leaders vowed their formal allegiance to IS in an audio message in Arabic posted to Twitter last month, according to intelligence analysts. The militant group has launched murderous rampages across northeastern Nigeria, and into neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger. In an attack April 7, Islamist extremists disguised themselves...

Around mid-April, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia –who once wrote a letter to Barack Obama beseeching the president to reconsider his foreign policies which enable the persecution of Christians in Syria — spoke again of the threat of Christian extinction in the Mideast during a meeting with Greek Defense Minister Panagiotis Kammenos. In the Russian Patriarch’s own words: "I regularly get reports of horrible crimes that are committed there against Christians, especially in northern Iraq. I have visited those places and I remember that there were many churches and monasteries there. The city of Mosul alone had 45...

Commander of Iran's Army Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan on Saturday firmly rejected allegations about the presence of Iranian military forces in Yemen and Iraq.

Full title: Christians in Niger Forgive Muslims Who Burned Churches and Killed Believers: 'We Want Them to Know Jesus Christ' Christians living in Niger, West Africa have offered Christ-like forgiveness to the radical Muslims who destroyed their homes and churches, are are continuing to share the Gospel in the region. On January 17, hundreds of Muslims, angered by the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, destroyed 69 churches and 11 Christian homes. Ten Christians lost their lives and hundreds more were injured in the wake of the deadly rampage. "They took pews, Bibles, chairs...

Today marks one year since the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 Christian girls from a school in the town of Chibok, Nigeria. In the days before the kidnapping, Boko Haram had massacred some 200 schoolboys at a nearby school who had been on their way to take exams. Despite initially being sent home, the girls had been called back to their school to take their final exams when the middle-of-the-night attack occurred. The regional government had closed all of 85 of its secondary schools and sent 120,000 students home because of previous attacks. […] The girls were...