Update on Christians in Afghanistan – Geraghty writes:
The good news for ARC is that they have so far rescued “hundreds” and transported them to third countries safely. The bad news is that the organization says that it has a list of thousands of at-risk Afghan allies still in its system. Thrower disputes the U.S. State Department’s characterization of about 100 Americans being left on the ground; she said that as of a few days ago, the figure her group had was closer to 1,000 — although she noted that every group making a rescue effort has its own list, potentially leading to overlap with one another in certain cases. The 1,000 figure may include U.S. green-card holders, too, which the State Department is putting in a separate category. The Taliban continues to call people to tell them they are coming for them. My guess is to both keep them in fear and hoping they will make a mistake while they systematically go about searching for and finding them. Thrower said that her organization has moved a certain number of endangered Afghans to safe houses, and is essentially telling them to stay in place until further notice. “But they’re running out of food and water. They’re afraid to leave the house for the past ten, twelve days. But the cost — the cost is, for some of our groups, $10,000 to $15,000 a week. We have people in our organization paying, and I’m sending them money through Western Union. If I don’t give them money, they won’t be able to stay in this hotel for another week.”
Conditions on the Ground
Thrower reports that her organization has “people who are going missing and getting killed every day.” Her group hears accounts from Afghans who made it out, as well as the horrifying accounts they’re told by those who were left behind.
She describes the case of an American child whose Afghan uncle was recently killed by the Taliban. “We have had people shot, beheaded. They’re taking the kids. If you’re on the run, and they find your family, they’ll hurt your family and put the word out in the neighborhood that ‘we’ve got your brother or son or daughter.’ They cut off the heads of two boys that were nine and ten.”While the description of beheaded children could not be independently verified, other reports of beheadings unfortunately have been. A recently unearthed video showed six Taliban men beheading an Afghan soldier. Christians in Afghanistan report receiving phone calls from the Taliban, pledging to behead them. A British member of Parliament said that Afghan refugees had told him of the Taliban forcing family members to watch the beheadings of their relatives. A human-rights activist in Kabul who was beaten and hospitalized said he was told by his Taliban captors, “You are acting against Islam so we are allowed to kill kafirs like you,” and two journalists said they were threatened with beheading after being beaten for covering a women’s protest.
Thrower laments that the Taliban is finding and executing Christians in Afghanistan with stunning speed. “We started out with 300 three weeks ago, and we’re down to 55. They’ve been killed. . . . We had two young girls that were with this Christian family, the Christians had found them after their parents had been killed. They were hiding together, and then went to the market to try to get some food. The Taliban found them, raped them, and beat them. We did manage to get them to a hospital.” … Thrower describes an insidious series of traps laid by the Taliban. When the Taliban find the phone number of a hiding Afghan, they will contact him through email or phone, posing as American officials who say that his visa has been processed. They then tell him that they should meet at a particular location so that he can pick up his visa and leave the country. When the targeted Afghan arrives, the Taliban close in and capture him, and usually torture the prisoner to extract more information about other hiding Afghans. The Taliban is methodically working its way through networks of hiding Afghans. Thrower described the use of code words and other security measures designed to help the hiding Afghans elude the Taliban hunters. She described the technological forms of the communications in some detail but asked that those details be withheld for security purposes. At this point, all of Afghanistan’s borders are closed — leaving the Afghans as “sitting ducks, waiting for someone to knock on their door, waiting for people to come and decide if they want to hurt them or not.” Thrower adds that a lot of the problem could be alleviated by the U.S. issuing transit visas to Afghans that would allow them to enter countries such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, where they could be transported to an airport, and then airlifted out of the region on charter flights — placing minimal strain on the governments of those neighboring countries.
Multiple Private Agencies Seek to Help
Thankfully, multiple agencies strive to get American citizens and Afghan Christians out of Afghanistan. ARC is one of several private groups attempting to get Americans, green-card holders, and Afghan allies out of the country; others include No One Left Behind, Digital Dunkirk, Allied Airlift 21, Hearts and Homes for Refugees, Samaritan’s Purse, the “Pineapple Express,” and more.
Pray for the Afghan People and Those Who Seek to Help Them
The report above breaks my heart to read. Children killed, people hungry, others tricked and captured, and all of them scared. Here in the States, we have no sense of their plight and destitute conditions. American left a mess over in Afghanistan. The chaos on the ground is reportedly incredible. For the entire report from Geraghty, click here. We must pray for these dear people – those fellow Americans, fellow Afghanistan Christians, and Afghan allies. Dads, Moms, Children, Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, People just like you and me.
Ask God to grant them courage as they wait to be rescued.
Pray for wisdom and safety for all the agencies seeking to get people out.
Ask God to confuse and confound the efforts of the Taliban.
Pray for God to comfort their hearts as they mourn the hundreds of Christians already executed.
Pray for God to grant mercy to these people.
Ask God to provide the funds necessary to do this good work.
Pray for officials in the Biden administration to act out of mercy and with urgency to help these individuals.
Pray that the Gospel will flourish in these desperate circumstances.
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