Release International

Eritrean military authorities have jailed 75 Christians at a military training camp - for 'reading Bibles and praying during their free time'.

Most of those arrested are students doing their compulsory national military service in Sawa, a remote area in western Eritrea near the border with Sudan. Thirty-seven of the 75 are women. Compass reports that the conscripts who were put under 'military detention and punishment' had not tried to hold a Christian meeting or broken military law in any way.

'In Sawa, to possess your own Bible and keep your personal devotion and loyalty to Christ is not allowed,' an Eritrean Christian told Compass. 'This is considered an act of Christian extremism.' Muslim conscripts at the training camp, by contrast, are allowed to have a copy of the Koran and pray five times a day.

President Isaias Afewerki heads up a Marxist-style government which in May 2002 banned all Christian groups except Evangelical Lutherans, Roman Catholics and Orthodox ones. An ongoing crackdown on church activities is focused particularly on evangelical and Pentecostal groups.

• Pray for the 75 Christian conscripts who are being punished for their faith. Pray that their arrests would help spread the Good News through the Sawa military camp, as others question them about their faith.
• Continue to pray for greater religious freedom in Eritrea, which is becoming increasingly repressive of religious minorities such as Christians.

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