₦airaland Forum

The attack, which occurred around 1 a.m. (2300 GMT) in the village of Kirindera in North Kivu province, took place just a few kilometres from another attack on a village that killed at least 35 people last week.

The army blamed last week's attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan armed group based in eastern Congo that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. A resident of a nearby village and a member of local civil society blamed Sunday's attack on the ADF.

"The ADF arrived, they set fire to a hospital after looting it with medicines, and they set fire to a hotel," said Sadame Patanguli, the resident.

He said the militants kidnapped several others, who are now missing. The details of the burned buildings and the death toll were confirmed by two regional officials.

The ADF was created in Uganda before moving to eastern Congo in the 1990s, and has been blamed for thousands of deaths in the last decade...

caye:
Evil mercenaries paid by France in order to subjugate west African countries.

Awọn Oloriburuku. Eegun Olodumare of destruction rests on France, Amin.

Kyari79:
That is how they say when they came & kill us in our mosqe @ zamfara, so not only christians

No reaction to confirm this assessment could be obtained by AFP from the national and regional authorities.

On the morning of February 26, "armed terrorist groups invaded the commune (Partiaga), killing, destroying property and carrying off livestock", indicated the Burkinabè Movement for Human and People's Rights (MBDHP).

"In the absence of any intervention by the security forces, the horror lasted all day, the VDP (civilian auxiliaries of the army) having been quickly overtaken by the events", continues the organization which also evokes missing persons. and deplores the absence of an official balance sheet.

Massive displacements
The governor of the eastern region where Partiaga is located, Hubert Yameogo, assured last week that the latter would be established "as soon as possible".

According to the MBDHP, the attack led to "massive displacement" of populations. He called on the authorities to "truly ensure their sovereign mission of securing the populations and their property".

After the attack, residents of Partiaga had evoked a "horror movie", explaining that the army had "abandoned the population". Three days after the attack, several thousand people demonstrated in the neighboring town of Diapaga to demand "more security".

Jihadist violence
Burkina Faso has experienced an intensification of jihadist violence since the beginning of the year, with dozens of deaths - civilians or soldiers - almost every week.

On Tuesday, in a statement to the press, the National Council of Civil Society Organizations (CNOSC), described "a serious situation" in several regions of Burkina Faso, particularly in the east where "the situation is most worrying".

Access by road to several provinces in this region is cut off by the jihadists and the capital of Fada N'Gourma is "almost surrounded". The same observation in Kaya, the capital of the Center-North region "gradually surrounded" by armed groups, according to the CNOSC.

In the North and Center-East, state services are closed while in the Sahel region, bordering Mali and Niger, "a tragedy" is emerging with a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation, continues the CNOSC.

Existential threat
"Every day the security situation is getting worse, threatening the very existence of our state," said CNOSC President Herman Doanio.

The organizations called for the rapid deployment of security forces and civilian auxiliaries "for a total reconquest of all localities under the influence of terrorist groups".

The violence attributed to groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization has since 2015 left more than 10,000 dead – civilians and soldiers – according to NGOs, and some two million displaced.

“I couldn’t pray because of the shock I was in. Whenever I opened my mouth to pray, words failed me. All I could say was ‘Lord, have mercy.’”

ACN’s report, titled “Nigeria: A Bleeding Wound,” shares some of the firsthand testimonies of Catholic faithful who have survived torture, kidnappings, and massacres at the hands of Nigerian terrorists.

In May 2021, Awesuh and 10 of his parishioners were kidnapped from St. John Paul II Parish in Nigeria’s Kaduna state by radical Islamic Fulani attackers.

Awesuh was alone in his room at 11 p.m. when he heard gunshots. Terrified, he turned out the lights and waited.

“I stood there confused, not knowing what to do, as I felt completely lost. There was a knock on the door. My legs went cold and my body stiff. I was sweating profusely,” Awesuh said. “They broke down the door and forced themselves inside. One of the men pushed me to the floor, tied me up, and flogged me mercilessly.”

Awesuh and his parishioners were marched barefoot through the wilderness for three days. They were then held captive in harsh conditions for more than a month until a large ransom could be paid.

Eventually, Awesuh and his parishioners were ransomed, but not before three parishioners were shot dead during a rescue attempt.

“I narrowly escaped death,” Awesuh said. Yet, he said, there are many priests there who have not been as fortunate.

“I know of so many priests kidnapped before and after me who were killed even after a ransom was paid,” Awesuh said.

Nigerian parish priest Father Bako Francis Awesuh told Aid to the Church in Need that he witnessed three of his parishioners shot to death in cold blood.

In 2022 alone more than 5,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria, according to religious freedom watchdog Open Doors International .

As a Catholic priest in Nigeria, Awesuh faces some of the highest risks of kidnapping, torture, and murder of any person in the world.

“Kidnappings are a hallmark of terrorist organizations in Nigeria … and clergy are increasingly being targeted,” the new ACN report said.

With over 30 million faithful, Catholics make up a large minority in Nigeria, accounting for approximately 14.82% of the country’s population.

Yet, violent persecution in Nigeria has become a growing concern in recent years, according to many religious freedom organizations, including ACN.
Both priests and lay faithful are regularly targeted by Islamic terror groups such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and militant Fulani.

In June of last year, gunmen believed to be Islamic Fulani extremists opened fire on Catholic worshippers attending Pentecost Mass at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in southwestern Nigeria, killing at least 50.

Maryamu Joseph, 16, shared her story with ACN after only two months since escaping captivity.

She was only 7 years old when Boko Haram attacked her village, called Bazza, taking her captive for nine years.

“Words cannot do justice to what I’ve gone through,” Joseph told ACN. “They murdered without remorse, like it’s a normal thing to do.”

“Right before my eyes, they took one of my siblings and killed him. They cut off his head, then his hands, legs, and stomach … I was devastated. I asked myself, ‘Who’s next?’”

According to Joseph, the Christians of her village faced particularly cruel treatment.

“They put the Christians in cages, like animals. The first thing they did was forcefully convert us to Islam. They changed my name to Aisha, a Muslim name, and warned us not to pray as Christians or we would be killed,” Joseph said.

Janada Marcus, 22, was forced to flee Boko Haram with her family twice before the terrorists attacked them again in the city of Maiduguri. In this attack, Janada’s father was told to either rape her or be killed.

“With a machete pointed at my father’s forehead, he looked at my mother and at me, but I avoided eye contact because I was ashamed to look him in the face, ashamed of what the men had suggested — it was an abomination!” Marcus told ACN. “My father put his head down in submission to be killed and answered: ‘I cannot sleep with my own flesh and blood, my own daughter, I would rather die than commit this abomination.’”

Her father was beheaded, and Marcus continued to suffer at the hands of the Islamic terrorists.

“They took me to the bush and tortured me severely, emotionally, physically and mentally for six days. I suffered a lot of terrible and wicked experiences — beyond explanation — that made those six days seem like six years,” Marcus said.

By sharing these testimonies, ACN said it seeks to call attention to Nigerian persecution, which has only continued to rise.

“ACN has been highlighting the plight of Christians in Nigeria for many years with growing concern, calling the country one of the most dangerous for Christians in the world,” ACN said in its report. “We call on organizations to work for justice in the country and we encourage people of goodwill, around the world, to pray for peace in Nigeria.”

ACN has not been alone in calling attention to the persecution in Nigeria.

Sean Nelson of Alliance Defending Freedom International told CNA at the beginning of the year that “2022 saw some of the worst violence and persecution against Christians in Nigeria.”

In the face of this rising persecution, Nigeria has by far the highest Mass attendance of any nation in the world. According to recent data compiled by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 94% of Catholics in Nigeria attend Mass at least weekly.

“The faith of so many in Nigeria, despite this suffering, is among the strongest I know of anywhere,” Nelson said. “It is high time that the U.S. and the international community finally recognize the devastation of the persecution in Nigeria and apply all resources to stop it.”

The victims were rushed to the nearby Ichilov Hospital, with one in critical condition. The other two were listed in serious and moderate condition, respectively.

Police said the attacker initially fled the scene but was shot and killed in an exchange of fire with security forces.

Israeli media identified the terrorist as 23-year-old Palestinian Mutaz al-Khawaja from the town of Ni’lin beyond the Green Line. The reports said he was a Hamas member who on two occasions was jailed in Israel. Israel Defense Forces and Israeli security forces are currently operating in the West Bank town of Ni’lin at the terrorist’s residence.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Jamal Varaki, one of the first responders at the scene on Dizengoff Street, recounted: “Together with other first responders and ambulance teams from United Hatzalah, I treated three people who were transported from the scene of the incident to Ichilov Hospital—one in critical condition having suffered gunshot wounds, one in moderate condition from shrapnel wounds and a third individual also lightly injured by shrapnel.”

Varaki added that members of the organization’s Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit treated numerous people for shock and anxiety.

An image of the shooter who fired on Israeli civilians near a cafe on Dizengoff Street, March 9, 2023. Source: Screenshot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from Italy , where he was meeting with leaders on Thursday, that “there has been another terror attack in the heart of Tel Aviv. We send our hopes and our wishes for the speedy recovery of the wounded, and we strengthen the security forces who are fighting terrorists this night and every night.”

He added that “we will continue to build our nation and deepen our roots, and to build our common future as brothers and sisters.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
"There has been another terror attack in the heart of Tel Aviv tonight. We send our hopes and wishes for the speedy recovery of the wounded, and we strengthen the security forces and police who are fighting terrorists this night and every night.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) March 9, 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (at left is his wife, Sara Netanyahu) being informed by his Military Secretary, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, of the shooting attack in Tel Aviv during a meeting with Italian Jewish community representatives in the Spanish Synagogue at the Jewish Museum of Rome, March 9, 2023. Credit: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO.

Last April, three Israelis were killed in a terror attack on Dizengoff Street, a popular thoroughfare full of shops, restaurants and bars.

The attack on Thursday night is the latest in a wave of terrorism to strike Israel.

On Feb. 26, a Palestinian attacker gunned down brothers Hallel Menachem and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv while they were driving near the village of Huwara in Samaria.

The next day, Palestinian terrorists killed Israeli-American Elan Ganeles near the Beit Ha’arava Junction close to Jericho in the Jordan Valley.

Earlier in February, a terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood claimed the lives of Yaakov Israel Paley, 6; his brother, Asher Menachem Paley, 8; and 20-year-old Alter Shlomo Lederman. Three days later, Israeli soldier Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed, 22, died from wounds sustained in a terrorist attack at a checkpoint to Shuafat in Jerusalem.

On Jan. 27, seven people were killed and several others were wounded in a terrorist shooting rampage at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood.

Cattaneo, who leads Forza Italia in the Chamber of Deputies, stated that the area around the central railway station, where a Moroccan stabbed six people with a box cutter on Monday, has become lawless.

“The areas around the Central Station are out of control. Just as the map of the critical areas of Milan has expanded. I am thinking of Quarto Oggiaro, via Padova, Giambellino and Corso Como,” he told the newspaper Il Giornale .

When asked how mass migration was linked to the rise in crime in Milan, Cattaneo said there ” is an ideological vice that has always led the left to deny the repercussions of an unlimited welcome.”

“I don’t know today anyone imagines being able to return to the model made from 2012 onwards, when almost 200,000 migrants were disembarked every year and then abandoned to themselves, in the streets of our cities, leaving them to fall victim to criminal organizations.,” he added.

“We are not at all nostalgic for that model. Indeed, i t is not possible to create integration without rules.”

Riot Police Intervene as Tensions Boil Over at Milan Asylum Office https:///IoVQMwo9oc
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon)
https://twitter.com/BreitbartLondon/status/1622935710448902147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
February 7, 2023

A report released last year revealed that as many as 60 per cent of the arrests in Milan in 2021 were of foreign nationals, with the high fashion mecca also being the top area in Italy for thefts per 100,000 inhabitants — and seventh for reports of sexual violence.

The comments from Mr Cattaneo come in the wake of a mass stabbing by 23-year-old Abrahman Rhasi on Monday afternoon, which saw the Moroccan rob five people and stab six, injuring two severely.

While Milan’s mayor Giuseppe ‘Beppe’ Sala is a leftist member of the Green Party, the new regional government in Lombardy, where Milan is located, consists of a centre-right coalition following regional elections this February.

According to Mr Cattaneo, the new government will be working to tackle the issue of delinquency and crime in Milan, including drug dealing and illegal occupations of buildings.

Italian Police Search 18 Migrant-Background Youths Suspected of Milan NYE Sex Attacks
https:///ocswqPR97q
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon)
https://twitter.com/BreitbartLondon/status/1481668613954326535?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
January 13, 2022

The assailants were members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Anthony Mualushayi said, referring to a Ugandan armed group based in eastern Congo that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State and conducts frequent raids on villages.

The attack targeted the village of Mukondi, around 30 km (20 miles) south of the city of Beni in North Kivu province, an area plagued with rebel activity that has been under military administration since 2021 in an attempt to restore order.

Mualushayi gave a provisional death toll of 35 civilians in a recorded interview with a local radio reporter shared on WhatsApp and verified by Reuters.

He said the attack was carried out in retaliation for the army detaining more than 22 ADF collaborators and closing down pharmacies allegedly supplying the group with chemicals to make bombs.

The situation on the ground was relatively calm, with security forces and Red Cross workers at the scene and burial preparations under way, he said.

Soldiers were chasing after the rebels to rescue hostages, he added.

Provincial governor Carly Nzanzu Kasivita said on Twitter on Thursday morning that at least 36 people had been killed in the attack, which started on Wednesday evening.

The head of a local civil society group, Mumbere Limbadu Arsene, gave a provisional death toll of 44, including women, children and the elderly, and said several villagers were still missing.

Both sources also blamed the ADF, which was created in Uganda before moving to eastern Congo in the 1990s, and has been blamed for thousands of deaths in the last decade.

Congo's government declared a state of siege in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province in 2021, in an attempt to stem rampant militia violence in the country's vast mineral-rich east.

But the killings and rebel activity have not shown any sign of abating.

Marwa was one of a small number of women who, under the previous US-backed government, were granted a legal separation in Afghanistan, where women have next to no rights and domestic abuse is endemic.

When Taliban forces swept into power in 2021, her husband claimed he had been forced into the divorce and commanders ordered her back to his clutches.

"My daughters and I cried a lot that day," Marwa, 40, whose name has been changed for her own protection, told AFP.

"I said to myself, 'Oh God, the devil has returned'."

The Taliban government adheres to an austere interpretation of Islam and has imposed severe restrictions on women's lives that the United Nations called "gender-based apartheid".

Lawyers told AFP that several women have reported being dragged back into abusive marriages after Taliban commanders annulled their divorces.

For months Marwa endured a new round of beatings, locked away in the house, with her hands broken and fingers cracked.

"There were days when I was unconscious, and my daughters would feed me," she said.

"He used to pull my hair so hard that I became partly bald. He beat me so much that all my teeth have broken."

Gathering the strength to leave, she fled hundreds of kilometres (miles) to a relative's house with her six daughters and two sons, who have all assumed fictitious names.

"My children say, 'Mother, it's okay if we are starving. At least we have got rid of the abuse'," said Marwa, sitting on the cracked floor of her bare home, clasping a string of prayer beads.

"Nobody knows us here, not even our neighbours," she said, fearing her husband would discover her.

In Afghanistan 9 in 10 women will experience physical, sexual or psychological violence from their partner, according to the UN's mission in the country.

Divorce, however, is often more taboo than the abuse itself and the culture remains unforgiving to women who part with their husbands.

Under the previous US-backed government, divorce rates were steadily rising in some cities, where the small gains in women's rights were largely limited to education and employment.

Women once blamed their fate for whatever happened to them, said Nazifa, a lawyer who successfully handled around 100 divorce cases for abused women but is no longer permitted to work in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

As awareness grew, women realised that separating from abusive husbands was possible...

Under the ousted regime, special family courts with women judges and lawyers were established to hear such cases, but the Taliban authorities have made their new justice system an all-male affair.

Nazifa told AFP that five of her former clients have reported being in the same situation as Marwa.

Another lawyer, who did not want to be identified, told AFP she recently witnessed a court case where a woman was fighting against being forcefully reunited with her ex-husband.

She added that divorces under the Taliban government are limited to when a husband was a classified drug addict or has left the country.

"But in cases of domestic violence or when a husband does not agree to a divorce, then the court is not granting them," she said.

A nationwide network of shelters and services that once supported women has almost entirely collapsed, while the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Human Rights Commission have been erased.

'Knock on the door'
Sana was 15 when she married her cousin, 10 years older than her.

"He would beat me if our baby cried or the food was not good," she said as she prepared tea on a gas stove at a home where she has been living in secret.

"He used to say that a woman does not have the right to talk."

With the help of a free legal service project she won a divorce from her husband in court -- but her relief was shattered when Taliban commanders came knocking.

Threatened with losing custody of her four daughters, she returned to her ex-husband who by then had also married another woman.

She escaped after he announced the engagement of her daughters to Taliban members.

"My daughters said, 'Mother, we will commit suicide'," Sana said.

She was able to gather some money and escape with her children, and with the help of a relative found a one-room house, furnished only with a gas stove and some cushions for sleeping.

"Whenever there's a knock on the door, I fear that he's found me and come to take the kids away."

Ordeal for children
A Taliban official told AFP the authorities would look into such cases where previously divorced women were being forced to return to their ex-husbands.

"If we receive such complaints, we will investigate them according to sharia," said Inayatullah, spokesman for the Taliban supreme court, who like many Afghans goes by one name.

When asked whether the Taliban regime would acknowledge divorces granted under the previous government, he said: "This is an important and complex issue."

"The Dar al-Ifta is looking into it. When it arrives at a uniform decision, then we will see," he said, referring to a court-affiliated institution that issues rulings on sharia.

For Marwa and her daughters, who survive by sewing clothes, the trauma has left deep psychological wounds.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to get them married," said Marwa, looking at her daughters.

"They tell me, 'Mother, watching how bad your life has been, we hate the word husband'."

Reverend Hyok preached publicly before the February 25 general election in which Bola Amed Tinubu emerged victorious in the race for the presidency. He told his church and community to vote wisely and advised them to not vote for tickets, like Tinubu’s, in which the candidates were both Muslim.

Nigerian political convention dictates that the major parties run tickets in which the presidential and vice presidential candidates are of different religions in order to calm religious tensions around the presidency.

“The militant came when we were sleeping,” a community leader told an ICC staffer. “They targeted the pastor for preaching to the community not to vote for Muslims as the country’s presidents but couldn’t say who he was supporting. The militant promised to attack the Christian communities that failed to vote Muslim during the election.”

On election day, four Christians were killed by Fulani militants in Benue State. Militants attacked them on their way home after voting. They were buried in a mass grave, and the community is bracing for promised attack after the election says a witness who narrowly escaped.

One local ICC staffer recorded seven Christian minority communities in Borno State which were denied the right to vote for Peter Obi, their preferred choice for the presidential election. Obi is a Christian and ran on the Labour Party ticket with a Muslim runningmate. In the incidents in Borno, Boko Haram came in significant numbers to stop Christians from voting during the election. Two Christians were reportedly killed for supporting the Obi candidacy.

International election observers reported scattered incidents of violence and other voter-intimidation tactics all over the country, though they stopped short of questioning the overall results of the election. Gubernatorial elections in the majority of Nigeria’s thirty-six states are coming up this weekend.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle Monday rammed a police truck in Pakistan’s restive southwest, killing 10 police officers and wounding 12 in one of the deadliest attacks on security forces in recent months, authorities said.

The newly formed Tehreek-e-Jihad militant group hours later in a statement claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place on a bridge in the Sibi district of Baluchistan province.

Violence, insult, rebellion, threats, racial insults, glorifying terrorism… The file of a 41-year-old man sentenced on Monday March 6 in direct appearance before the criminal court in Dieppe is extensive.

Abdelkader, who was born in Feuquières-en-Vimeu and lives in Abbeville (Somme), terrorised a passer-by at the base of the Le Tréport funicular at around 6pm on Thursday March 2. ” You swing a hammer above her head. They shout out ‘Allah Akbar’ several times,” the judge recalled. “He’s either crazy or has been drinking,” concludes the pedestrian and alerts the gendarmerie.

(…) To check whether the man’s condition is compatible with police custody, the gendarmes take him to a hospital. “At the Eu hospital centre, you make allusions to the attacks at the Stade de France, the Bataclan and Nice,” the judge continues. The man in his forties shouted to them, “You got a lot off. We will blow you up!” and promised to return with Al-Qaeda. He also threatened the families of the gendarmes. His blood alcohol level at that time was 0.65 mg/l breath (1.30 g per litre of blood).

(…) He tries to appease: “Even in prison, I never radicalised myself. It is not part of my purpose in life to kill someone with a knife. At the age of 41, I have never killed anyone.” His criminal record shows 25 convictions.

(…) But the judges double the sentences demanded: Abdlekader El Mechbouh is sentenced to two years in prison without parole.

The incident, SaharaReporters gathered, happened on Tuesday night.

Confirming the incident, the State Commissioner for Internal Security and Humanitarian Affairs, Mr Emmanuel Umar, said the government was yet to ascertain the details of the attack.

No fewer than 50 persons were also reportedly abducted by the terrorists masquerading as bandits, who operated around Anawanka, Sabon Gari and Kundu axis of the two local government areas, according to Leadership.

It was learnt also that a Nigeria Air Force (NAF) fighter jet engaged the bandits for several hours but the detail of the operation or otherwise was not yet known.

SaharaReporters had reported that shortly after the presidential and National Assembly elections of February 25, 2023, that Fulani herdsmen and Islamic terrorists also resumed their vicious attacks on Benue and some others states especially in the North Central and North West and some parts of South West.

More than 1,000 students have been affected since November. They have suffered respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and fatigue.

Many Iranians suspect the poisonings are a deliberate attempt to force girls' schools to close.
But the government has not said whether it believes they are premeditated.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who has been tasked by the president with finding the "root cause" of the poisonings, on Wednesday dismissed as "false" a report by Fars news agency that three people had been arrested.

He also accused foreign-based media and "mercenary groups" of taking advantage of the situation to wage psychological war and worry people.

Some pupils and parents suggested that schoolgirls may have been targeted for taking part in recent anti-mandatory hijab protests.

At least 26 schools in five cities across Iran were affected by the latest gas poisonings, local media and activists said.

BBC Persian verified videos showing ambulances arriving at schools and students being treated in hospitals in the capital Tehran, the north-western city of Ardabil and the western city of Kermanshah.

In one from Tehransar, in western Tehran, several girls purportedly from 13 Aban School are seen lying on beds in a hospital ward and receiving oxygen .

Another video from the city's east shows girls sitting on the pavement outside a primary school. A mother is then seen rushing up to the gate and screaming: "Where is my child?" A man replies: "They've poisoned the students with gas."

Authorities are under increasing pressure from the public to stop the poisonings, which were initially concentrated in the Shia Muslim holy city of Qom, south of Tehran.

Research by BBC Persian established that at least 830 students, mostly schoolgirls, had been poisoned as of Sunday, while a member of parliament put the figure at 1,200 in Qom and the western city of Borujerd alone as of Tuesday.

Those affected have reported the smell of tangerine or rotten fish before falling ill.

The chairman of the parliamentary education committee, Alireza Monadi-Sefidan, was quoted by Fars as saying on Tuesday that an investigation had found that the toxic gas contained nitrogen.

However, the interior minister told reporters on Wednesday that reports saying a specific chemical substance had been detected were incorrect.

One parent told the BBC that girls at their daughter's school in the Tehran suburb of Pardis were poisoned on Tuesday.

"My daughter and two of her friends say they heard something like an explosion and immediately afterwards an unpleasant smell - something like burned plastic filled the air," said the parent, who the BBC is not identifying for safety reasons.

"They were asked to leave the class and go into the yard. Many of the students started collapsing in the yard. There are kids with asthma and heart problems in my daughter's class."

"Ambulances and the police arrived. Kids were given milk by the ambulance staff."

On Sunday, Deputy Health Minister Younes Panahi said it was "evident that some people wanted all schools, especially girls' schools, to be closed down", although he later said that his remarks had been misunderstood.

Some people have speculated that the schoolgirls are being targeted as "payback" for their role in the mass protests that erupted in September after the death in custody of, Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly failing to wear her headscarf "properly".

Authorities have portrayed the protests as "riots" and responded with lethal force. Human rights groups have reported that hundreds of protesters have been killed, among them dozens of children.

In another video posted online on Wednesday, a woman is heard saying that girls at a primary school in Kermanshah had told her that they heard an explosion, and that their headteacher then announced that some students were unwell and ambulances were being called.

The woman then talks to a young girl, who wonders whether they were "chosen" because they had taken part in the protests.

Public anger at the poisonings and the authorities' response have prompted fresh unrest.

A second video from Tehransar on Wednesday showed a group of girls outside 13 Aban School shouting "Woman, life, freedom" - the main slogan of the protest movement - as well as "Death to the child-killing government."

The parent from Pardis said: "We arrived at the school, angry and worried. Parents started shouting slogans against [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei."

"Nobody believes they will investigate these attacks," they added. "I have no hope in the system. But I hope the world will hear our voice and stop supporting these child killers."

Officials reported that 35 students from their daughter's school were taken to hospital after the poisoning. But the parent said the actual number was much higher.

"From my conversations with parents and the school principal, half of the students were taken to hospitals. That is at least 200 students."

One of those children was in a coma, they said, adding: "Some parents have also refused to take their children to hospital because they are afraid and don't trust the officials."

Armita had multi-colored dyed hair and an eyebrow piercing. She wrote about her life, cats and dreams on Instagram until she was arrested in October 2022 for joining the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement triggered by the September death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police.

How did Armita become a symbol of resistance of the Iranian people in the face the Islamic Republic’s fierce crackdown on more than four months of demonstrations demanding more freedoms and women’s rights? What do we know about her ordeal during the nearly four months she has spent behind bars?

Subjected to “repeated rape”
A lot of what we know about Armita’s detention was revealed in a shocking report published by US television news network CNN on November 21, 2022. The report was titled “How Iran’s security forces use rape to quell protests.”

Earlier, private Instagram messages between medical staff of Karaj’s Imam Ali Hospital circulated on social media and mentioned the case of a young woman who was brought by security forces to the hospital one week after her arrest. This woman was suffering from symptoms associated with violent sexual assault such as hemorrhage and rectal lacerations.

The security agents took Armita away before her family arrived at the hospital. The young woman’s head was shaved, and she was trembling out of fear.

The medics wrote about the horror they felt when they saw evidence of brutal rape. “When she first came in, [the officers] said she was hemorrhaging from her rectum…due to repeated rape. The plainclothes men insisted that the doctor write it as rape prior to arrest,” one of the messages reads.
An insider at Imam Ali hospital confirmed the veracity of the leaks to CNN.

Alleged “riot” leader
After the leaked messages were published, Raja News and other media outlets affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps quoted Hossein Fazeli Harikandi, the president of Alborz province’s Department of Justice, as saying that two arrested demonstrators had “confessed” that Armita was a protest leader.

On October 30, Raja News claimed that bottles of gasoline, 10 Molotov cocktails and lighters were seized during Armita’s arrest. The report also alleged she had called on people to “riot” on social media.

Harikandi called Armita’s reported rape and sexual assault a “total fabrication” and said she was hospitalized due to a hemorrhoid condition she was already suffering from prior to her arrest. The official also said that after being discharged from hospital, she was visited by a specialist doctor to prevent the recurrence of the problem. No evidence was provided to support these claims.

Dry Hunger Strike
On January 2, Armita’s mother announced that her daughter had gone on a dry hunger strike to protest her long detention without her case being processed in court. In retaliation, the inmate was forbidden to call her family.

It was later reported that 14 cellmates had joined Armita’s hunger strike, both to support her and protest lack of medical care, their long detentions and the absence of legal due process.

Finally, on January 29, Armita’s father wrote on his Instagram page that the first hearing of her trial was held in the presence of her lawyers. He said the court session was conducted in a “just” and “lawful” manner and that his daughter’s lawyers were permitted to defend his daughter - an occurrence with few precedents in the last four months.

On the 99th day of Armita’s detention, her father wrote said that he knew “nothing about the charges against her.” And on January 22, Armita’s lawyer tweeted that he and the other lawyer in the case had resigned because they had not been allowed to meet their client in person. He wrote that the lawyers did not have enough time to prepare a proper defense.

On the eve of the trial, the father wrote that the court had accepted Shahla Orouji as Armita’s chosen lawyer and that she was going to defend her in court. IranWire could not find out whether Orouji was able to meet her client before the trial. It was also unclear if the lawyer was granted access to Armita’s file.

Icon of the protest movement
Armita, known by many for her colorful hair and her intelligent comments about social events on Instagram Live, has been in prison since October 10. As numerous reports by human rights organizations and media outlets such as IranWire have shown, Iranian jails are torture chambers for young Iranian protesters, regardless of whether they are official prisons or detention centers of the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence.

Now Armita’s has become a symbol of the Iranian protest movement. Photos posted on social media show that other young Iranians in the streets of Karaj and other Iranian cities continue to denounce her ordeal in captivity by writing graffiti on walls and putting her picture on buildings.

Shima Babaei, a women’s rights and an anti-forced hijab activist, tweeted ahead of Abbasi’s trial, “She knows what she wants from life, she knows her rights and she does not kowtow to the dictator. Those who are devoid of any humanity targeted her womanhood, violated her life and robbed her of her half-baked freedom. Our dear girl has suffered beyond belief.”

Originally sentenced to death in 2010 for leaving Islam, Nadarkhani was freed on Feb. 26, following the pardon and release earlier in the month of Hadi Rahimi and Zaman Fadaei, religious freedom advocates said. While welcoming the releases, they noted that those released had already served significant portions of their sentences in cases marred by legal irregularities even by Iranian standards.

“Their pardon hardly addresses the injustice of the original sentencing and suffering that the men and their families endured,” said a specialist on Iran with Middle East Concern (MEC) on condition of anonymity. “But we are glad for their sakes that they are free and with their families again.”

Nadarkhani had been acquitted of apostasy in September 2012 but was found guilty of a lesser charge of evangelizing and sentenced to three years in prison.

He was arrested again, along with his wife, in May 2016 when agents with the Ministry of Intelligence began raiding Christian homes and house churches in Rasht. In July 2016, the Revolutionary Court in Rasht charged Nadarkhani with “crimes against national security” and accused him of being a Zionist.

Nadarkhani, his wife and two other Christians were found guilty of acting against national security, propagating house churches and promoting Zionist Christianity in June 2017 and sentenced to 10 years each in prison. Nadarkhani was also sentenced to two years’ exile in Nik Shahr.

Nadarkhani remained free until officials arrested him at his home in July 2018 and took him to Evin Prison to begin serving his sentence. Security officers assaulted Nadarkhani and his son during the arrest, according to MEC and other advocacy groups. Upon judicial review of his case, Nadarkhani’s sentence was later reduced to six years.

Two prisoner releases preceded Nadarkani’s. Hadi Rahimi was released from Evin Prison on Feb. 15, following that of Zaman Fadaei from the same notorious prison on Feb. 8.

Rahimi was arrested in February 2020 with three other members of a house church in Rasht and released three months later on a bail bond of 200 million toman (about US$12,000). In August 2020, Rahimi was sentenced to four years in prison for “acting against national security” and “spreading ‘Zionist’ Christianity” for attending a house church.

The other Christians arrested in the raid received sentences of between two and five years. A month later, Rahimi’s sentence was upheld on appeal, and on Jan. 9, 2022, he turned himself in to begin his sentence.

Fadaei, another Christian convert from Islam, was released on Feb. 8 also in recognition of the revolution’s anniversary. As with Rahimi, Fadaei’s pardon was approved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as part of the amnesty freeing “tens of thousands” of prisoners, according to state news agency IRNA.

Fadaei was well known for raising the ire of the Iranian government for following Christ. In November 2020, he was flogged for drinking wine during a Communion service, an 80-lash sentence originally issued in 2017. In June of that year he was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for “acting against national security by propagating house churches and promoting Zionist Christianity,” according to advocacy groups.

Fadaei’s sentence was later reduced to six years in June 2020 after judicial appeal.

‘Enemy of the State’
In light of recent civil unrest in Iran, there has been much speculation about who would be released as part of the amnesty tradition marking the Feb. 11, 1979 revolution. With Iranian state media reporting the release of 10,000 prisoners, religious freedom advocates in Iran were still tracking information on other releases.

The February pardons were part of a larger game of musical chairs the Iranian state plays with prisoners of conscience, including religious conscience. On Jan. 28, authorities released Anahita Khademi, a Christian convert, on a bail bond of 180 million toman (about US$4,000) in connection with various charges, including distributing “propaganda against the system” and “disturbing public opinion.”

Khademi, wife of well-known Pastor Abdolreza Haghnejad, on Jan. 3 was ordered to appear at intelligence offices in Bandar Azali, where she was questioned, arrested and later transferred to Lakan Prison in Rasht. Her husband remains in Lakan Prison in Rasht serving a six-year prison term sentence for “acting against the security of the country by forming and propagating Christianity outside the church and in the house church and giving information to the enemies of Islam.”

Charges against Pastor Haghnejad stemming from his arrest in 2014 had been overturned, but in January 2022 the judicial leadership of a court in Karaj nullified the appeal, declared him an enemy of the state and reinstated the six-year sentence.

Iran ranked eighth on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List (WWL) of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. During the past few years, the government of Iran has severely cracked down on house churches, but the WWL report states, “despite great oppression, the Islamic Republic of Iran has seen phenomenal growth in its underground church movement.”

“Christian gatherings in private homes have been denounced as ‘illegal groups’ and acts ‘against national security,’ while many churches continue to be closed,” the report states. “Converts from Islam to Christianity bear the brunt of religious freedom violations, carried out by the government in particular, which sees these Iranian Christians as an attempt by Western countries to undermine the Islamic regime. Leaders of Christian convert groups, as well as members of other denominational backgrounds who support them, have been arrested, prosecuted and received long prison sentences for ‘crimes against national security.’”

The incident which occurred in the early hours of Sunday was said to be a reprisal attack following the killing of three Fulani Youths on Wednesday in Ganawuri.

Youth leader of Ganawuri, Song Mura, who confirmed the development to AIT said trouble started when some Suspected Fulani kidnappers were arrested during the Market day last Wednesday but later escaped in the hands of Fulani Vigilante who were to keep them before the arrival of security operatives.

According to Muru, the situation degenerated into an argument and later escalated to Crisis leading to the death of three Fulani Youths despite several meetings and appeals for calm, some Suspected Fulanis still launched an attack on an innocent Family who had nothing to do with the last Wednesday’s incident.

The Plateau State Police Command through its spokesman DSP Alfred Alabo confirmed the incident and said the command has commenced an investigation to unravel those behind the attack.

As of the time of filing this report, the Pastor and his two sons are being buried amidst tension in the entire Ganawuri axis. Men of Operation Safe Haven and other security operatives have taken over the entire Ganawuri Community to restore normalcy.

On Thursday afternoon, a nine-year-old girl out with her grandmother and grandfather was stabbed in the stomach and throat by a Muslim migrant screaming Allahu Akbar in central Gothenburg. The suspect, Milad Salari, is a 35-year-old Muslim born in Iran and has committed 52 crimes in Sweden since 2002.

Police report that the attack is still unclear, and the police see no connection between the perpetrator and the victim. The grandmother was also slightly injured when she tried to protect the girl.