Christian Woman Tortured to Death in Eritrea

LOS ANGELES, September 7 (Compass Direct News) – Eritrean authorities tortured a woman to death on Wednesday (September 5) for refusing to recant her Christian faith, the fourth such killing in less than a year, according to a Christian support organization.

Citing Christian sources in the East African nation, Open Doors said in a statement that it had confirmed that 33-year-old Migsti Haile was killed for refusing to sign a letter recanting her faith. Held at the Wi’a Military Training Center 20 miles south of the Red Sea port of Massawa, Haile was one of 10 single Christian women arrested at a church gathering in Keren who have spent 18 months under severe pressure.

Eritrea outlawed independent Protestant churches in May 2002, closing their buildings and banning them from meeting even in private homes. Haile was a member of a Rhema church, an independent Protestant group, according to Open Doors.

Before her arrest, according to the organization, Haile worked for a relative while studying to complete high school-level education.

On February 15, Magos Solomon Semere died under torture at the Adi-Nefase Military Confinement facility outside Assab, four and a half years after the Eritrean regime jailed him for worshipping in a banned Protestant church. According to one source, the 30-year-old Semere died “due to physical torture and persistent pneumonia, for which he was forbidden proper medical treatment.”  read more>>