

Just hours before the beginning of Ramadan, masked gunmen riding three SUVs killed 29 and wounded 22 Coptic Christians on pilgrimage to a monastery in Upper Egypt. Most were children. This was the fourth attack on Christians since December. The bus was travelling in the desert towards a remote monastery 140 miles south of Cairo, where Christians account for more than 35% of the population, the highest ratio in any province. Security and medical officials fear the death toll could rise. Following the attack, acknowledging the lapses of security, Major-General Faisal Dewidar was transferred from his post in charge of security, as part of a wider reshuffle that included thirteen other Interior Ministry officials being removed from their posts and appointed elsewhere. Egypt then launched a series of airstrikes that targeted what it said were militant bases in eastern Libya in which the assailants were trained (see the next article).
Crosswinds Prayer Trust was founded in 1994, at Nailsea, near Bristol in the South-west of England by Canon John Simons. Its aim is to mobilise, inform, connect and equip people in Christian Prayer...
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