Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have only reported relatively few virus cases, although close to China…
Now, scientists warn that some Covid-19 cases are being missed due to the simultaneous outbreak of Dengue fever which has already killed 100 and infected 16,000 in Indonesia.
A team of Singapore-based doctors said the dengue outbreaks in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines could complicate efforts to battle Covid-19.
As shown in the news paper, Dengue and coronavirus disease 2019 are difficult to distinguish because they have shared clinical and laboratory features.
The paper describes two patients in Singapore with false-positive results for dengue, who were later confirmed to be infected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative virus of COVID-19.
The video below features the similar story of a Thai retail worker who was being treated for dengue fever and later infected with Covid-19 to finally die on Saturday:
Dengue Fever Outbreak in Indonesia
This comes after Indonesia reported a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, its first coronavirus death today, and more than 100 dead and 16,100 infected linked to the simultaneous outbreak of Dengue Fever on March 10, 2020.
Most deaths occurred in Christian-majority East Nusa Tenggara province (at least 32 fatalities), while West Java (also hit yesterday by destructive earthquake) and East Java have also reported a high number of deaths.
The worst hit categories are:
5-14 at 41.72%
15-44 at 37.25%
During the last major Dengue outbreak in 2016, there were only 620 infected and 13 deaths over the same time period.
This year, the patients have skyrocketed, most probably due to poor drainage and sanitation problems, both in cities and villages.
Or as presented in the scientific paper above, these people mostly die from the coronavirus… What do you think about this theory? (Click to Source)
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Philippines: On Sunday, January 27, Islamic militants bombed a Catholic cathedral during Mass. At least 20 people were killed and 111 wounded. Two explosives were detonated about a minute apart in or near the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo around 8:45 a.m. According to one report, “The initial explosion scattered the wooden pews inside the main hall and blasted window glass panels, and the second bomb hurled human remains and debris across a town square fronting the cathedral.” Photos on social media showed human bodies and remains strewn on the street just outside the cathedral. The officiating priest, Fr. Ricky Bacolcol, “was still in shock and could not speak about what happened,” to quote a colleague. After the first bomb detonated, army troops and police posted outside the cathedral rushed in, at which point the second bomb went off. Fifteen of the slain were civilians, five military men; 90 of the wounded were civilians. Located in a Muslim-majority area, the cathedral was heavily guarded as it had been hit before: grenades were hurled at it twice in 2010, both times damaging the building; and in 1997, Bishop Benjamin de Jesus was gunned down just outside the cathedral. The Islamic State claimed this most recent attack, adding that the massacre was carried out by “two knights of martyrdom” against a “crusader temple.”
Egypt: An Islamic terror plot to bomb a packed Christian church on the evening of January 6, when Coptic Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas, was foiled by police. According to one report,
[F]our explosive devices were planted around the Church of the Virgin Mary and St Mercurius in … Nasr City. Three were removed safely but the fourth, concealed in a bag, exploded when police bomb disposal technicians attempted to deactivate it. Police Major Mostafa Ebeid was killed in the blast, which wounded two other officers and a bystander. The explosion was the latest in a series of incidents apparently targeting Egypt’s Coptic Christian population, occurring the day before Orthodox Christmas eve….
Separately, between late December and early January, authorities forcefully shut down four more churches in Egypt after angry Muslim mobs rioted in protest of their existence. In one instance, on Friday, January 11, over one thousand Muslims surrounded and demanded the instant closure of St. George Church in Minya. Not only did authorities comply but they evicted the two priests who were holed up inside the church and hauled them off in a vehicle used for garbage, prompting “an elated response from a jubilating, gloating mob,” which included triumphant cries of “Allahu Akbar”(Allah is greater; a brief video of the mob can be seen here.) Police “ behaved with the priests as they would with killers,” one human rights lawyer said. “What happened frightened us,” added another clergyman. “I am a priest and it is possible for the police to cuff me if the extremist neighboring Muslims protest or gathered in front of my church. Things are getting worse, but let us pray to make God keep us in peace.” The local Coptic Christian bishopric said in a statement,
This is not the first time a place used for worship by Copts in Minya is closed. The common factor among all closures, however, is that they were done to appease fundamentalists and extremists to the detriment of the Copts. It appears to indicate that extremists now hold the upper hand, and appeasing them is the easy way out of problems…. This comes in the wake of declarations by the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyeb in favour of churches, also positive talk and actions by President Abdel-Fattah a-Sisi that every Egyptian has the right to practise his or her religion of choice, and to Pope Tawadros’s efforts on that front.
A January 15 report discussing this attack computes that, “In total, Egyptian authorities have closed four churches within the last four and a half weeks. No formal procedures against the attackers of these churches have begun.”
Cameroon: Muslim militants invaded and ransacked two Christian villages in the middle of the night of January 24. They destroyed 190 homes, plundered and desecrated four churches, set a Christian hospital on fire, and killed livestock. “Is it really human beings who are doing this?” a local eyewitness was later quoted as saying. According to the report,
The attack on Gochi and Toufou [the Christian villages] is the fourth by militants in two weeks. In the previous attacks three people were killed and churches and homes were damaged or destroyed…. Christian villages in the far north of Cameroon are subject to attacks by Boko Haram Islamist militias [as] they attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate from north-eastern Nigeria all the way to northern Cameroon, which is where most Cameroonian Muslims live in what is a predominantly Christian country.
Nigeria: Militant Muslims have destroyed a total of 1,125 churches belonging to one Christian denomination alone, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, which is primarily based in the Muslim majority northeast of the nation, a January 23 report found. The President of the denomination, Rev. Joel Billi continues making appeals for the local Muslim majority government to expedite the rebuilding of these places of worship: “Why are we flagrantly neglected as if we deserve to be punished? If not for the inadequacy of our security forces and political undertone, Boko Haram would not have overrun us. So, why do we pay for the sin that was not committed by us?”
Ghana: Irate and machete wielding Muslim youth vandalized a church after its pastor predicted that the Chief Imam Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharunutu would die this year. Afterwards they made a video giving the pastor an ultimatum to withdraw his prophecy or else: “We’re warning you,” said the group leader. “You have only 24 hours to capture yourself in a video to apologise to all Muslims. Don’t bring your fake prophecies on the Muslims or our Chief Imam. If you don’t apologise, we’ll drink your blood.”
Indonesia: A Muslim mob stormed a house church meeting on Sunday, January 13, in the North Sumatran capital of Medan. Video footage shows a loud and angry throng led by men wearing Muslim skullcaps and women in hijabs surrounding a pastor’s residence, which had allegedly been converted into a place of worship for use by the Bethel Indonesia Church congregation. The mob shouted at and shoved Christians in attendance before forcing the service to a close. “We didn’t do things that were prohibited,” wrote one church member on Instagram. “We only wanted to pray, but why was our church attacked this morning? Where is justice in this country? Where is our religious tolerance? God is with us.” Due to this and similar incidents, Christians are increasingly “feel[ing] intimidated to worship in their own country,” the report notes, before adding that:
members of the congregation claim that they have obtained some permits for the building to function as a house of worship but are still missing some documents, which they say have been difficult to obtain from government officials, especially during the recent holiday period. In September, authorities in the East Sumatran city of Jambi sealed three churches, which had been used as places of worship for over a decade, because they lacked official permits. An administrator at one of the churches said they were given no warning prior to the closure and that he suspected the churches were shut due to pressure from certain groups who threatened to protest if they remained open. Officials from one of the churches said their attempts to obtain the proper permits had proven difficult as government officials [in the Muslim majority nation] always denied them.
Algeria: After authorities shut down their church, a 300-strong Christian congregation began to meet and worship in a tent—only to be forced out of and ordered to dismantle it as well on January 28. The tent was erected on the grounds of Azaghar Church, allowing the congregation to continue worshipping following the forced closure of their church on spurious “health and safety” reasons. According to one report,
The church … lost the use of its building in October 2018, despite the congregation responding to requests to install fire exits and fire extinguishers. While conversion from Islam is not a criminal offence in Algeria, those who witness to Muslims potentially face a five-year jail sentence. The officially recognised church had been open for five years and is a powerful ministry to local Muslims. …. A number of churches have been shut down since the start of 2018, either for alleged breaches of health and safety, or because authorities claim they are not properly registered.
Violence against Christians and Conversion Pressure
Uganda: Muslims beat and hospitalized a Christian woman for praying to Christ in her home. “Today we have come to warn you that you should avoid noisy prayers and the use of Issa [Jesus] in your prayers,” one of the four assailants informed Deborah Gimbo’s after bursting into her home. They added that a local cleric had said that “people who pray in Jesus’ name should be fought and pressured until they accept only worship of Allah, or else be killed.” “I cannot stop praying,” she responded, “and more so, Issa [Jesus] is my Lord and Savior, and I will continue praying in His name…. Immediately two of the intruders left the house, and in no time entered the room again with sticks and started beating me. I was hit on my face, and blood started flowing down my face as I started shouting for help.” Neighbors came to her rescue; she was hospitalized for two days.
Iran: During their final appeal hearing held on January 15, two Christians “were asked by presiding judges Hassan Babaee and Ahmad Zargar to renounce their faith, but refused to do so,” says one report. Earlier, on September 22, 2018, the two, Saheb Fadaie and Fatemeh Bakhteri, were sentenced to prison on the charge of “spreading propaganda against the regime,” and “promoting Zionist Christianity.” The January 15 verdict also “claimed that discussions of Christian doctrine held in house churches were considered attacks on Islam.” A human rights activist familiar with the case elaborated:
The conviction of Mr Fadaie and Ms Bakhteri for asserting Christian doctrine is not only a grave violation of their right to espouse a religious belief of their choosing, but also criminalises the Christian faith, which the Iranian constitution purports to recognise…. We call for the verdict against Mr Fadaie and Ms Bakhteri to be overturned, and urge the Iranian authorities to ensure due process in cases involving religious minorities. We also continue to urge the Iranian government to cease all forms of harassment and intimidation of peaceable religious communities, and to release all those detained in connection with their religion or belief.
Somalia: “It’s very dangerous for anyone to identify you as a Christian in this country,” an underground pastor going by the pseudonym of John explained in a January 7 report concerning the dangers of being outed as a Christian in the Islamic Horn of Africa. “You will, in fact, be counting your days on Earth. So we are always silent as long as we meet and share the word of God in private.” The report elaborates:
Hundreds of Christians in Somalia, typically foreigners from nearby countries who work across the East African nation, fear [that] Muslim extremists — both jihadists in al-Shabab, a group linked to al-Qaida, and rogue elements among their otherwise peaceful neighbors — would kill them if they knew they held Christian services. Around 99.8 percent of Somalis are Muslim…. In recent years, the situation for Christians in the Horn of Africa has worsened, as illustrated by killings shared on social media. In the region under the control of al-Shabab, the militants hunt for Christians.
Attacks on Muslim Converts to Christianity
Kenya: “Muslim policemen on Saturday (Jan. 19) beat and arrested a Christian man on the outskirts of Nairobi, in retaliation for refusing to recant Christianity,” states one report. “Accompanied by two Muslims of Somali descent who had attacked him previously, the policemen arrived at the home where Hassan (surname withheld for security reasons) lives with his widowed mother, and the officers along with the two others punched, kicked, trampled and struck him with blunt objects…” According to his mother:
The police arrived and carried Hassan away with blood flowing from his body. My son’s leg is bruised, he has serious chest and back pain, he is unable to walk and some of his teeth were removed. My family is in danger, where are we going to hide ourselves? I cannot go back to Islam. I am better dying with my family than going back to Islam….I have suffered several persecutions from the Muslims for converting to Christianity…. My stomach is ailing from the attack I suffered few years ago. I cannot stand in an upright position. I and my family have chosen the cause of Christ. No turning back.
Sudan/Egypt: A January 31 report recounted the persecution experienced by a former Muslim woman turned Christian. Ebtehaj Alsanosi, 42, “had fled to Egypt in 2005 after being jailed five times for her faith in Sudan.” She eventually married another convert who had also fled Sudan and birthed a daughter. Her persecutors eventually tracked her down, kidnapping her on the way to market in Egypt:
They called her name, grabbed her, covered her nose and mouth, twisted her hands and sprayed some chemical on her that left her unconscious…They took her to the windowless room in an unknown house where they poured water on her, pulled her hair and tied her hands and legs to a chair, all the while shouting her name. Covering her eyes, they reminded her of her Islamic upbringing in Sudan, and how after her school years she moved with her family to Saudi Arabia. Her Sudanese father, they reminded her, is a sheikh (Islamic teacher) in Saudi Arabia.
“You are disgrace to your Muslim family, you brought shame to the family,” they yelled at her as they beat her. “You are ‘kafira’ [infidel].” They ordered her to return to her Sudanese family in Saudi Arabia, otherwise, she, her husband, and daughter aged 11 would all be slaughtered. “I will not go back to Islam—I hate Islam,” she shot back, prompting them to beat her even harder. One of her abductors then brought “a copy of the Koran and began reciting verses that call for the killing of those who leave Islam”—even as they all shouted “Allahu Akbar” in between recitals. “The extremists then untied her, forced her to lie on the floor and ripped her clothes. In spite of her pleas to stop, they raped her in turns.” One of the men said, “This is lesson number one.” They continued abusing and beating her, asking after each torture session if she was ready to renounce Christ and resubmit to Muhammad, only for her to refuse. She was eventually struck unconscious, and when she came to, was lying in the middle of a busy street.
A separate January 21 report revealed the sufferings of a Muslim man who also fled from Sudan to Egypt after converting to Christianity. Osman “left Khartoum in April 2014 after police from Sudan’s Criminal Investigation Department accused him of apostasy, punishable by death in Sudan.” At one point, “National police arrested him from the streets of Khartoum, covered his eyes with a cloth and took him into secret detention, where they tortured him for three weeks… He was suspended from the ceiling while agents poured cold water on him, leaving his left hand permanently damaged…” “[T]hey told me they were going to kill me if I do not return back to Islam,” he explained. “I fled Sudan for my life after I learned that my life was in danger.” Before long, however, unknown persons in Cairo began sending him death threats via phone texts. Most recently, his apartment was raided and his passport stolen, prompting him to go into hiding. “My life is in great danger as Egypt is becoming an insecure place for me,” Osman was last reported as saying.
Uganda: The story of a mother and daughter who were driven out of their home by their Muslim husband/father after they converted to Christianity appeared in a January 7 report. According to Adijah, the mother:
All the years that I was a Muslim, I found nothing wrong with it. But last year, when I was listening to a radio program about Jesus, I started thinking about Christianity and why there was so much enmity between Muslims and Christians. I did not know [it then, but it] started my journey to Christianity. My husband learned that I had accepted Christ when he found a Bible in the house. I pleaded with him to allow me to try out my new faith and see how far I would go, but he was reluctant. Within days, he became hostile towards me and Nuriah [the daughter] who had also started reading the Bible. I was given a one-week ultimatum to decide if I wanted to become a non-Muslim and follow the lost religion of Christianity.
Knowledge of her apostasy from Islam eventually spread throughout the region and extended family and others urged her husband to drive her out: “You are an infidel,” he eventually burst out. “I do not want to see you here. Pick your clothes and leave with Nuriah because she has also started reading the Bible and singing Christian hymns. See the shame and destruction you have brought to us. Nuriah used to be a good Muslim, but now she hides and goes with you to church.”
The following day before we left [continues Adijah], he had uprooted all the cassava crops I had planted. Shouting at the top of his voice, he threatened to take back everything that he had put under my name so that I will not inherit any property from him. He said these were the dire consequences of forsaking Allah and his prophet and following after other gods.
According to his daughter, Nuriah, “I am ready to become a Christian, but my father might look for me and beat me. I still love my father but he doesn’t want us to worship the way we want. He should not force us into Islam. One of our relatives has informed us that my father is looking for ways to kill us.” He has since remarried. “I hear that he has looked for a Muslim lady and they are staying together in the same house we used to live,” said his ex-wife. “We live in fear because we don’t know what he is planning to do to us.” The destitute mother and daughter have experienced much poverty and turmoil since, and were last reported as taking refuge with a Christian family in another part of the nation.
Separately in Uganda, a former Muslim turned Christian lives in fear for his life after local Muslims razed the church he led to the ground and threatened him with death for apostatizing and causing other Muslims to apostatize from Islam. “A gang of radical Muslims entered the church compound,” Simon Mustafa Waseke, who became Christian in 2017, recalled, “and pulled down the church building while shouting ‘Allah Akbar [Allah is greater], away with this church and Pastor Mustafa Waseke. No more prayers in this place, or else you will all lose your lives,’ and in no time the church was on its ground.” A clandestine Christian in touch with the Muslim community informed him that they are plotting his murder: “Even if am given police protection, I am not sure of the security of my members of the church, who are now very fearful. I am at a crossroads of not knowing what to do. My church members are scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Soon their faith in Christ will diminish, and they will possibly return to Islam…. The Muslims are now out to kill me and my family—we are having sleepless nights. How long are we going to hide ourselves from our enemies of Christianity? Please pray for us.”
Pro-Muslim and Anti-Christian Bias in the West
United Kingdom: A Christian man who had been residing in the UK for 15 years was in early January deported back to Pakistan, even though he had been persecuted there. Asher Samson, 41, “first arrived in the UK in 2004 to carry out his theology training in order to become a pastor, but later applied for asylum after receiving threats from Islamic extremists during visits home,” notes a report. His former pastor, Rev Lorraine Shorton from Hall Green United Community Church, described his current situation: “I’ve received some messages from him. He’s very scared, he’s fearful for his life…. He’s in hiding in Pakistan and his family are terribly worried for him…. At the moment he has no funds to live on—he can’t work …. [T]he UK is sending people back to these countries where their lives are in danger. Pakistan is number five on the World Watch List for extremism against Christians and it’s just disgraceful really that we’re sending people potentially to their death…. Pray that the government will see sense.”
Another separate report from January 20 asserts that, when it comes to offering asylum, the UK “appears to discriminate in favour of Muslims” instead of Christian minorities from Muslim nations. Statistics confirm this allegation: “out of 4,850 Syrian refugees accepted for resettlement by the Home Office in 2017, only eleven were Christian, representing just 0.2% of all Syrian refugees accepted by the UK.”
New Zealand: Of those foreign nationals offered asylum between October 31, 2017 and October 31, 2018, seven were from Iraq, 105 from Afghanistan, and 277 from Syria—yet all were Muslims a report found: “Figures for previous years … are equally bleak. In 2016, only six Christians were among the 377 Syrians granted sanctuary, and in the five weeks up to 10 February 2017 no Christians were among the 45 Syrians, all Muslims, who were allowed to settle. Christians made up 10% of the population of Syria before the war.” Responding to this disparity, a government spokesman said refugees were considered for resettlement on the basis of “their protection needs and not religious affiliation.” However, considering that the Islamic State regularly targets people based on their “religious affiliation” suggests that Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities have many more “protection needs” than Muslims.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it. (Click to Source)
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CARITA BEACH, Indonesia (AP) — The deadly tsunami struck in the dark, without warning.
At least 222 people were killed as waves smashed into houses, hotels and other beachside buildings Saturday night along Indonesia’s Sunda Strait, in a disaster that followed an eruption and possible landslide on Anak Krakatau, one of the world’s most infamous volcanic islands.
More than 800 others were injured and dozens were reported missing after the tsunami hit coastal areas along western Java and southern Sumatra islands at 9:27 p.m. Saturday amid a Christmas holiday weekend, the Disaster Management Agency said. The death toll could increase once authorities hear from all stricken areas.
It was the second deadly tsunami to hit Indonesia this year, but the one that killed more than 2,500 people on the island of Sulawesi on Sept. 28 was accompanied by a powerful earthquake that gave residents a brief warning before the waves struck.
On Saturday night, the ground did not shake beforehand to alert people to the oncoming wave that ripped buildings from their foundations in seconds and swept terrified concert goers on a popular resort beach into the sea.
Azki Kurniawan, 16, said his first warning about the tsunami was when people burst into the lobby of the Patra Comfort Hotel shouting, “Sea water rising!”
Kurniawan, who was undergoing vocational training with a group of 30 other students, said he was confused because he had not felt a big earthquake. He said he ran to the parking lot to try to reach his motorbike but discovered it was already flooded.
“Suddenly, a 1-meter (3.3-foot) wave hit me,” he said, his eyes red and swollen from crying. “I was thrown into the fence of a building about 30 meters (100 feet) from the beach and held onto the fence as strong as I could, trying to resist the water, which felt like it would drag me back into the sea. I cried in fear … ‘This is a tsunami?’ I was afraid I would die.”
Dramatic video posted on social media showed the Indonesian pop band Seventeen performing under a tent on popular Tanjung Lesung beach at a concert for employees of a state-owned electricity company. Dozens of people sat at tables while others swayed to the music near the stage as strobe lights flashed and theatrical smoke was released. A child could also be seen wandering through the crowd.
Seconds later, with the drummer pounding just as the next song was about to begin, the stage suddenly heaved forward and buckled under the force of the water, tossing the band and its equipment into the audience.
The group released a statement saying their bass player, guitarist and road manager were killed, while two other band members and the wife of one of the performers were missing.
“The tide rose to the surface and dragged all the people on site,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, when the current receded, our members were unable to save themselves while some did not find a place to hold on.”
Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said 222 deaths had been confirmed and at least 843 people were injured.
The worst-affected area was the Pandeglang region of Java’s Banten province, which encompasses Ujung Kulon National Park and popular beaches, the agency said.
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressed his sympathy and ordered government agencies to respond quickly to the disaster.
“My deep condolences to the victims in Banten and Lumpung provinces,” he said. “Hopefully, those who are left have patience.”
A woman cries after identifying a relative among the dead. (AP Photo/Fauzy Chaniago)
At the Vatican, Pope Francis prayed for the dead, the missing and the homeless in Indonesia, telling tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square that his thoughts were with victims “struck by violent natural calamities.”
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted support for Indonesia: “We are praying for recovery and healing. America is with you!”
In the city of Bandar Lampung on Sumatra, hundreds of residents took refuge at the governor’s office, while at the popular resort area of Anyer beach on Java, some survivors wandered in the debris.
Tourists who were enjoying the long holiday weekend ahead of Christmas were also affected.
“I had to run, as the wave passed the beach and landed 15-20m (meters, or 50-65 feet) inland,” said Norwegian Oystein Lund Andersen, in a Facebook post. The self-described photographer and volcano enthusiast said he was taking pictures of the volcano when he suddenly saw the water racing toward him. He and his family fled safely to higher ground.
People inspect the wreckage in Carita, Indonesia. (AP Photo)
The damage became apparent after daybreak Sunday. Nine hotels and hundreds of homes were heavily damaged by the waves. Broken chunks of concrete and splintered sticks of wood littered hard-hit coastal areas, turning beach getaways popular with Jakarta residents into near ghost towns. Vehicles were tossed into the rubble or were buried under collapsed roofs. Debris from thatch-bamboo shacks was strewn along beaches.
Yellow, orange and black body bags were laid out, and weeping relatives identified the dead.
Scientists, including those from Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics agency, said the tsunami could have been caused by landslides — either above ground or under water — on the steep slope of the erupting Anak Krakatau volcano. The scientists also cited tidal waves caused by the full moon.
The 305-meter (1,000-foot) -high Anak Krakatau, whose name means “Child of Krakatoa,” lies on an island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands, linking the Indian Ocean and the Java Sea. It has been erupting since June and did so again about 24 minutes before the tsunami, the geophysics agency said.
The volcanic island formed over years after the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, one of the largest, most devastating in recorded history. That disaster killed more than 30,000 people, launched far-reaching tsunamis and created so much ash that day was turned to night in the area and a global temperature drop was recorded.
Most of the island sank into a volcanic crater under the sea, and the area remained calm until the 1920s, when Anak Krakatau began to rise from the site. It continues to grow each year and erupts periodically although it is much smaller than Krakatoa.
A damaged house in Carita, Indonesia. (AP Photo)
Gegar Prasetya, co-founder of the Tsunami Research Center Indonesia, said Saturday’s tsunami was likely caused by a flank collapse — when a big section of a volcano’s slope gives way. It’s possible for an eruption to trigger a landslide above ground or beneath the ocean, both capable of producing waves, he said.
“Actually, the tsunami was not really big, only 1 meter (3.3 feet),” said Prasetya, who has studied Krakatoa. “The problem is people always tend to build everything close to the shoreline.”
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and home to 260 million people, lies along the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. Roads and infrastructure are poor in many areas of the disaster-prone country, making access difficult in the best of conditions.
Saturday’s tsunami also rekindled memories of the massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake that hit Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004. It spawned a giant tsunami off Sumatra island, killing more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries — the majority in Indonesia. (Click to Source)
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Associated Press writers Margie Mason and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed.
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Friday caused a massive tsunami to crash into Sulawesi island on Friday
The cities of Palu and Donggala were worse hit as beachgoers were swept away by the enormous waves
A government spokesman confirmed Sunday the death toll had risen to 1,203, doubling the last number
Access to several towns along the coastline has hampered relief efforts as transport networks are down
Criticism has been levelled at the government for initially lifting a tsunami warning after Friday’s quake
By GEORGE MARTIN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 03:08 EDT, 30 September 2018 | UPDATED: 14:13 EDT, 30 September 2018
The death toll from an earthquake and tsunami that devastated part of the island of Sulawesi has risen to 1,203 – with the total number expected to climb higher still.
The tsunami, which was triggered after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake, ripped through the Pacific Ring of Fire and crashed into the Palu at 500mph, causing widespread destruction into the evening on Friday.
Figures collected by the National Police Headquarters put the number killed at 1,203 people. The death toll is expected to climb even higher. Search and rescue team have struggled to reach cut-off communities feared wiped out by the disaster.
Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said access to Donggala, as well as the towns of Sigi and Boutong, is still limited and there are no comprehensive reports from those areas.
Government officials said rescuers could hear screams from within the rubble of several buildings on Saturday evening as they battled through the night and into Sunday to free those trapped.
Samidah, a relative of a victim, cries while gathered outside the collapsed Roa Roa hotel in Palu, Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi
A woman cries as she waits to be evacuated by military aircraft following an earthquake and tsunami at Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Airport in Palu
A man walks inside a damaged area at the Airport in the aftermath of earthquake in Palu in Indonesia today
Rescue personnel evacuate earthquake survivor Ida, a food vendor, from the rubble of a collapsed restaurant in Palu
Relatives look for tsunami and earthquake victims in body bags at a police station, in the aftermath of earthquake in Palu
Rescuers try to rescue a 15-year old earthquake victim Nurul Istikharah from her damaged house following earthquakes and tsunami in Palu on Sunday
Rescue personnel evacuate earthquake survivor Ida, a food vendor, from the rubble of a collapsed restaurant in Palu
Earthquake victims stuck in a traffic jam gather as they leave Palu today
Rescue personnel carry the body of an earthquake victim to the compounds of a police hospital in Palu
A team of rescuers helping to pull a trapped woman from the mud on Sunday as thousands more are still feared to be trapped under rubble from Friday’s earthquake
Striking aerial shots show a mosque which has been razed first by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and then the 2 meter high wave on Friday afternoon
A road traffic bridge could be seen completely collapsed along the coastline in the outskirts of Palu as first the earthquake and then the tsunami swept away enormous pieces of the city’s infrastructure
A handout photo made available by the Indonesian Presidential Palace showing Indonesian President Joko Widodo (C) looking at a ruined house as he visits a devastated area in Palu
A handout photo made available by the Indonesian Presidential Palace showing Indonesian President Joko Widodo (2-L) talking to residents as he visits a devastated area in Palu
An injured man is evacuated on a military aircraft following an earthquake and tsunami at Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Airport in Palu
In this photo released by the Indonesian Presidential Office, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, left, talks with tsunami survivors in a temporary shelter
‘The death is believed to be still increasing since many bodies were still under the wreckage while many have not able to be reached,’ Nugroho said.
Fears are mounting for the the fishing town of Donggala, which was closer to the epicentre of the quake, but which rescuers have not been able to reach.
The town of Mamuju was also severely affected but currently impossible to access due to damaged roads and disrupted telecommunications.
Meanwhile criticisms have been levelled at the country’s geophysics agency for lifting the tsunami warning 34 minutes after it was first issued, which may have led to confusion and exacerbated the death toll.
Many of those killed in Palu were swept away by giant waves more than 10ft high as they played on the beach in the scenic tourist town.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (L) looking at a ruined house as he visits a devastated area in Palu
Earthquake victims stuck in a traffic jam gather as they leave Palu on September 30, 2018
Earthquake victims stuck in a traffic jam gather as they leave Palu on September 30, 2018
Relatives look for tsunami and earthquake victims in body bags at a police station in Palu today
Indonesia quake: 832 people confirmed dead according to national agency
Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said 832 people had died by Sunday afternoon but that figure later rose to 1,203
Rescuers carry an earthquake survivor at restaurant building damaged by the massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu on Sunday morning
Indonesian rescuers search for the victims on the a collapsed Roa Roa hotel building in Palu as frantic efforts to save those trapped continued over the weekend
Members of the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency sift through the rubble of a collapsed building on Sunday in their desperate search for survivors
Motorists pass by a half-collapsed shopping mall heavily damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami as darkness falls on Palu on Sunday
People carry items looted from a shopping mall badly damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu on Sunday morning as water still fills the streets of the coastal city
People take gasoline from a truck as the bare essentials are shipped in to the worst affected areas around the city of Palu on Sulawesi island
Hordes of people could be seen taking items from a damaged shopping mall in downtown Palu on Sunday as supply lines to the island remain down
A mannequin lies on the ground amid the wreckage of a destroyed shopping mall in Palu on Sunday as the island struggles to cope with the effects of the devastating quake and tsunami
Looters take away items from a shopping mall as government agencies struggle to get fresh aid to the affected areas of coastline
The number of casualties was no doubt increased by the fact that hundreds of people had descended on Palu’s beach for a festival to celebrate the city’s anniversary, due to start Friday night.
TV footage showed images of destroyed houses in Donggala and areas that were once land now inundated with water. Aerial video also showed the battered coastline surrounding Palu.
Looters were stealing from a badly damaged shopping centre in Palu that was not being guarded. They did not appear to be concerned about their safety, despite ongoing aftershocks and the structure’s questionable stability.
Residents were also seen returning to their destroyed homes, picking through waterlogged belongings, trying to salvage anything they could find.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, second right, talks with tsunami survivors in Palu on Sunday as he flew into Sulawesi to oversee relief efforts
President Joko Widodo stands in front of the ruins of a house in Palu on Sunday as he jetted in to inspect the damage for himself
Joko Widodo, left, talks with tsunami survivors in a temporary shelter in Palu as thousands have been left homeless by the disaster
People sifting through the rubble on Sunday after the earthquake razed several thousand of Palu’s most vulnerable buildings to the ground on Friday
Thousands of people queue for gasoline in the streets of Palu following the disaster as many of the cars and motorbikes being used by civilians to adjust to the crisis have run out of fuel
The damage outside a shopping mall in central Palu where dozens of motorbikes and cars have been submerged by the flooding from Friday’s tsunami
Two men push a shopping trolley filled with goods away from the carcass of a destroyed shopping mall as people with motorbikes lined up in the streets to take away the looted goods on Sunday
Terrifying footage shows people fleeing in panic as giant tsunami wave smashes mosque in Indonesian coastal city
Horrific video footage uploaded to social media has revealed the extensive damage caused by a tsunami.
A dramatic video filmed from the top floor of a parking ramp spiral in Palu and posted on Twitter, showed a wall of whitewater crashing into houses along the shoreline, scattering shipping containers and almost flattening a large mosque.
People can be seen fleeing in panic as the tsunami devastates the surrounding area which, just moments before, had a car driving in it.
The impact of the disaster and the number of casualties is though to have been worsened by the fact that hundreds of people had descended on Palu’s beach for a festival to celebrate the city’s anniversary.
One clip even showed a baby being treated as the people grimly tried to deal with the aftermath of the disaster.
Another gives a view of the impact of the tsunami from the position of a fishing boat, with the fishermen heard praying as they take in the extent of the devastation.
It’s clear that thousands of buildings have been damaged, with some entirely swept away or demolished, leaving scores of families missing among the debris.
Nugroho said 61 foreigners were in Palu at the time of the disaster. Most of them had been accounted for, but one South Korean was believed to be trapped in the ruins of the Roa-Roa Hotel, while three others from France and one from Malaysia were missing.
The survivors were to be evacuated to the Sulawesi city of Makassar in the island’s far south.
It’s the latest natural disaster to hit Indonesia, which is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the ‘Ring of Fire,’ an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Last month, a powerful quake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people.
Looters were stealing from the badly damaged shopping mall, which was not being guarded Sunday. They did not appear to be concerned about their safety, despite ongoing aftershocks and the structure’s questionable stability.
Residents were also seen returning to their destroyed homes, picking through waterlogged belongings, trying to salvage anything they could find.
A family sleeps in front of a restaurant in Palu on Sunday as thousands of people in the coastal city have been left homeless by the natural disaster
People view the damage at the beach hit by tsunami as a road can be seen to be completely collapsed into the floodwater around the shore at Palu
Indonesian Air Force members stand in line as they prepare to board a military plane on its way to join emergency efforts in the coastal disaster area
Relief efforts are struggling to get through to most areas because of damage to airports, roads and rails with local rescuers in Sulawesi desperate for more support
Government officials said they expected the death toll to rise on Sunday despite it doubling to 832 over the weekend as more and more bodies are found in the rubble of destroyed buildings
Indonesian workers load donations into a military transport aircraft as those in affected areas are lacking the most basic necessities to survive
A woman carries a meager ration of fuel away from a filling station after queuing for hours to get a supply in crisis-racked Palu, Indonesia on Sunday
The collapsed dome of a mosque in Palu which was brought down in the huge earthquake on Friday as some of the city’s most notable landmarks fell victim to the tremors
Residents make their way along a street full of debris, including the wreckage of a shipping container. Power lines have come down and in the background is a mosque which was a badly damaged by the 10ft waves
Palu city is built around a narrow bay that apparently magnified the force of the tsunami waters as they raced into the tight inlet
Nugroho described the damage as ‘extensive’ with thousands of houses, hospitals, shopping malls and hotels collapsed, a bridge washed away and the main highway to Palu cut due to a landslide
Some people climbed trees to escape the tsunami and survived the towering waves caused by the two earthquakes: the first, a 6.1 magnitude quake hit the densely populated region on Friday morning, and was quickly followed by even fiercer 7.5 magnitude tremors
A woman cries as people begin to realise the extent of the damage and the number of casualties after an earthquake and a tsunami hit Palu. Thousands of buildings have been damaged, with some entirely swept away or demolished, leaving scores of families missing among the debris
Many of those killed in Palu were swept away by giant waves more than 10ft high as they played on the beach in the scenic tourist town. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency warned early on of reports showing that ‘victims died in the rubble of a collapsed building’
Fears are mounting for the the fishing town of Donggala, which was closer to the epicentre of the quake, but which rescuers have not been able to reach.
Indonesian media said Sunday that 832 people had died in Palu City, on the the Indonesian island of Sulawesi after two earthquakes in quick succession caused a tsunami that sent locals fleeing their homes. (Click to Source)
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According to a report in the Christian Post, Christians displaced by Islamic attacks at the hands of Boko Haram terrorists are being denied food and vital assistance at camps run by local Muslim organizations. As many as 1.8 million people in Nigeria are currently facing starvation. “They will give food to the refugees, but if you are a Christian they will not give you food. They will openly tell you that the relief is not for Christians.” — Bishop William Naga, who fled his home in the Borno state, Nigeria.
A Pakistani government want-ad for street sweepers states that applicants must be Hindu, Christian or Shia — anyone but the dominant Sunni Muslim population – illustrates the way in which minorities are prevented from earning a living wage.
A sophomore at Rollins College in Florida was suspended for challenging a Muslim professor’s assertion that the crucifixion of Jesus never took place, and that his disciples never believed he was God. After the incident, during a Middle East Humanities class, the straight-A student was graded an “F” on a major essay.
The uptick in often lethal persecution of Christians in Muslim regions has caused many Christian leaders to appeal for aid. Canon Andrew White, the prominent minister known as the “Vicar of Baghdad” told Fox News in March, “If there is anything I can tell Americans it is that your fellow brothers and sisters are suffering, they are desperate for help,” he said. “And it is not just a matter of praying for peace. They need a lot – food, resources, clothes, everything. They need everything.”
White also went as far as to say that Christianity in Iraq, where it has been since the times of the apostles, is finished.
“Thirty years ago, there were approximately 1.4 million Christians in Iraq. The number dwindled to around 1 million after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and a year ago it was estimated that there were less than 250,000 left. Numbers have continued to decline as families flee, and today even approximate figures are difficult to obtain.”
According to a Vatican Radio report, Nigerian Catholic Bishop Joseph Bagobiri responded to “the recent atrocities of Fulani [Muslim] Cattle herdsmen…, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Christians and the destruction of property worth millions of Naira,” by calling on all Christian denominations to implement counter measures against the “systematic elimination of Christianity in the northern part of Nigeria.”
One source said that in one of these assaults, two of the victims “had their eyes plucked out.” A survivor of another said, “The sad thing is that these Fulanis have been attacking our communities, and no one is doing anything about it.”
Commenting on the “horrific attacks” on Coptic Christians in Egypt between December 2016 and March 2017 — during which 40 “innocent children, women and men had their lives brutally and tragically ended for no other reason except that they are Christians” — Coptic Bishop Anba Angaelos of the United Kingdom said the slaughter has “gone largely unnoticed by the international community.” He continued:
“In our fast moving world that is filled with so much news of tragedy, war and death, it is all too easy for atrocities to become ‘incidents,’ and for individuals suffering them to become mere statistics, very quickly pushed aside by the next item of news. In the eyes of the perpetrators they are a viable target, and in the eyes of the world they become a regrettable phenomenon; yet what is actually left behind is traumatized individuals, families and communities that have lost loved ones, living the reality of themselves being targeted.”
A report released in early 2017 by Open Doors — a non-denominational mission supporting persecuted Christians in over 60 countries — reveals:
“Islamic extremism” remains the dominant force responsible for the persecution of Christians in 40 of the 50 worst nations;
Nine out of the 10 worst nations for Christians have a Muslim majority (with North Korea being the only non-Islamic exception);
In the 21 (18 of which are Muslim-majority) worst nations for Christians, “100 percent of Christians experience persecution”;
1,329 churches have been attacked, damaged, or destroyed, mostly in Muslim-majority nations;
Muslim Somalia is now the second worst nation for Christians, who are executed instantly if their faith is discovered, or even rumored;
In Nigeria — where more Christians have been slaughtered by Muslims than possibly in any other nation — the killing of Christians went up by 62 percent;
The nation where the most violent and sexual attacks on Christians take place – Muslim-majority Pakistan — rose to the number four spot on the list of the worst countries for Christians.
Accounts of widespread Muslim persecution of Christians to surface in the month of March include, but are not limited to, the following: (Click to Site)
Nine of top 10 countries where Christians suffer are Islamic, according to Open Doors USA.
The majority of anti-Christian persecution in the world in 2013 took place at the hands of Muslims, according to a list by Open Doors USA .
The nondenominational group supporting persecuted Christians worldwide recently released its 2014 World Watch List, that describes and ranks anti-Christian persecution in a list of the 50 worst countries for the past year.
It reported increasing violence against Christians in Africa, and said radical Muslims were the main source of persecution in 36 countries on its list – both in Islamic countries and in non-Muslim countries such as Kenya (ranked 40th), Ethiopia (17th) and Tanzania (49th).
The top country where Christians suffer, for the 12th consecutive year, remained communist North Korea, though the nine following countries in the top ten were Islamic: Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen.
Open Doors said earlier this month that it had documented 2,123 “martyr” killings over the year, compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such deaths in Syria alone last year, it said.
“The one glaring fact that emerges from this report,” American-born scholar Raymond Ibrahim said in his analysis of the statistics on the Christian Broadcasting Network News website, “is that the overwhelming majority of Christian persecution around the world today is being committed at the hands of Muslims of all races, languages, cultures and socio-political circumstances: Muslims from among America’s allies (Saudi Arabia) and its enemies (Iran); Muslims from economically rich nations (Qatar) and from poor nations (Somalia and Yemen); Muslims from ‘Islamic republic’ nations (Afghanistan) and from ‘moderate’ nations (Malaysia and Indonesia); [and] Muslims from nations rescued by America (Kuwait).”
Ibrahim, the son of Coptic Christian Egyptian parents, is a Shillman fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum and author of a new book, titled Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians, that documents the suffering of Christians in the region.
He noted that in countries that underwent “Arab Spring” uprisings, increased persecution occurred after the regimes collapsed.
“Muslim persecution of Christians,” Ibrahim said, is “part of a continuum that started nearly 14 centuries ago.”
