A judge sentenced a Christian to life in prison under Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes for a social media message that relatives say was posted using a phone stolen from him, sources said.
Fanson Shahid, 56, had been beaten in his home in Lahore when arrested in March 2022 and tortured into confessing after he was accused of posting a derogatory remark about Islam.

A formerly Muslim couple in eastern Uganda, parents of four young children, were slashed to death on Feb. 2, two months after putting their faith in Christ, sources said. Twaha Namwoyo, 38, and his 27-year-old wife, Nadiimu Katooko, were slain for their faith outside their house in Bulalaka village, Saala Parish, Kibuku Sub-County, Kibuku District, a neighbor said. “I heard people talking and conversing loudly in Arabic and the Lugwere language, saying that Twaha is to reap the fruits of leaving Islam,” the neighbor told Morning Star News on condition of anonymity. “After a few minutes, I heard loud wailing coming out of Twaha’s house.”

In a rare move in Pakistan, police discharged a 72-year-old Christian from a blasphemy case after the complainant admitted she had falsely accused him, sources said. Younis Bhatti, known as Bhagat, had been arrested and charged with desecrating the Quran under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes, which carries a mandatory life sentence, in village 211-RB, Jaranwala Tehsil, Faisalabad District, Punjab Province, on Saturday (Feb. 10). Sosan Fatima, a member of the Brethren house church founded by the Bhatti family, had accused him of forcing his way into her house when she was reading the Quran, assaulting her and tearing the Islamic scripture. In her complaint, Fatima also stated that Bhatti opposed the family’s alleged conversion to Islam.

Karbino Bla, a Christian Sudanese man, succumbed to his injuries on Jan. 5, five days after he was assaulted by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Wad Medani. One week later, Muslim extremists, also from the RSF, set fire to a church in the same city, destroying Bibles, hymnbooks, and church supplies. “There are radical Muslims among RSF,” said the pastor of Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church in an online post. “I met some of them in Khartoum and Medani who badly harassed me when they learned that I was a pastor.”

Suspected Fulani terrorists on Wednesday (Jan. 3) killed 41 Christians and kidnapped many others in two counties of southern Kaduna state, Nigeria, sources said. The assailants in the early morning attacked Dokan Karji, Ungwan Sako and Kunkurai villages in the Dawaki area of Kauru County and Gefe village in Kajuru County, area resident Sunday Isuwa said. “The attacks in Kauru claimed the lives of 17 Christians, and those in Kajuru claimed the lives of 24 Christians,” Isuwa told Morning Star News in a text message.

Suspected Nigerian Fulani militias attacked 21 Christian villages in the Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Mangu counties of Plateau State on Christmas Eve, killing nearly 200 villagers according to government officials and humanitarian groups. The number of dead is expected to rise as families continue to search for missing loved ones.
On Thursday, Plateau State Commissioner of Information and Communication Hon. Musa Ashoms reported 195 people killed during the Christmas Eve attacks, and villagers were still missing. He told communities to defend themselves and take up arms as needed.

Suspected Fulani herdsmen attacked a village in northern Nigeria on early Tuesday (Oct. 31), killing one Christian, wounding two and kidnapping 25 others, sources said. In southern Kaduna state’s village of Ungwan Baka, Kachia County, the assailants attacked while residents were asleep, said area resident Emmanuei Yusuf. “The Christian villagers were attacked in the early hours of Tuesday,” Yusuf told Morning Star News in a text message. “The injured victims are currently being treated in the hospital.”