Turkey's Christian minority is once again being put under pressure. In early January 2020, the Syriac Orthodox Abbot Aho Bilecen and two parishioners were arrested in Tur Abdin in southeastern Turkey. They were released from police custody a few days later, but still other Christians have been arrested. Tur Abdin is a former Christian stronghold. Father Slavomir Dadas, chair of the “Initiative Christlicher Orient” (Initiative for the Christian Orient), spoke with Aid to the Church in Need about the plight of Christians in Turkey:

An Islamic State terrorist faction in West Africa claims it killed 11 Christian aid workers in Nigeria in retaliation for the killings of IS leader Bakr al-Baghdadi and his spokesman in two separate U.S. military operations earlier this year.