Displaying items by tag: Military

Key issues remain strongly contested despite draft laws agreed in Morocco by Libya’s rival legislative bodies. Libya has been fraught with conflict for more than a decade since Muammar Gaddafi’s removal during the Arab Spring, prompting rival factions to compete for power. By 2015 two legislative bodies had formed and struggles over Libya’s rule and wealth have continued since then. A 6+6 committee drawn from Libya’s two rival legislative bodies – the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR) and the Tripoli-based High Council of State (HCS) – agreed on 6 June on draft laws for presidential and parliamentary elections, inching forward in the country’s current political crisis. The UN, while welcoming progress, says key issues remain strongly contested, blocking the road to a final settlement and harbouring the potential to spark a new crisis in the divided country. The democratic process needs to reach an agreement on the eligibility criteria for presidential candidates.

As Zin Nwe Phyo and her classmates settled down with their teachers, bullets and bombs hit the school and children ran outside to hide. ‘Soldiers fired right through the school walls, hitting the children,’ said one eyewitness. ‘Pieces flying out of the main building injured children in the next building. There were big holes blown out of the ground floor.’ Their attackers were Russian Mi-35 helicopter gunships carrying powerful rapid-fire cannon and rockets which destroy people, vehicles and most buildings. Since Myanmar's military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, air strikes like this happen routinely in a civil war at a stalemate across much of the country. Zin Nwe Phyo and many others died that day. Resistance to military attacks on civilian targets has increased humanitarian needs and increased opportunities for Christian workers to share about Christ. Local missionaries care for children sheltering with them, opening the way to share the gospel with their parents.

The withdrawal of Russian troops from important Ukraine towns has prompted two powerful Putin allies publicly to ridicule the war machine's top brass. Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov said, ‘Nepotism in the army will lead to no good. The commander of Russian forces should be stripped of his medals and sent to the front line with a gun to wash away his shame with blood.’ Such public contempt for those running Russia's war indicates the growing level of frustration among Putin’s elite with his war tactics. The powerful mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin congratulated Ramzan’s comments, saying, ‘Ramzan - you rock man! All these ******** should be sent barefoot to the front with automatic guns.’

Military Ministries International (MMI) are in various continents including Europe. In Ukraine they have been busy serving soldiers, military widows, and military families by providing daily internet prayer and Bible study times to different groups. There are several meetings with large numbers of soldiers for evangelism. MMI received food produce at the logistics centres and then distributed it to soldiers and widows. They were able to include a large group of military widows in the UN humanitarian programme this summer. A young American volunteer was baptised recently by an MMI pastor who sends a word of encouragement from the Bible individually to a few hundred people (mostly soldiers) and coordinates the ministry of the MMI chaplains. A very great encouragement for chaplains is the international daily MMI prayer through Zoom, which has been held since the war began. MMI requests prayer for God to give strength, wisdom and unity to all the military.

After President Zelensky told NATO he wants the war to finish ‘before winter sets in’, the UK pledged an additional £1bn of military aid to Ukraine. This brings UK military aid to £2.3bn plus £1.5bn spent in humanitarian and economic support. (Ukraine’s monthly defence cost is £4.12bn). The new £1bn comes from departmental underspends plus £95 million from Welsh and Scottish government budgets. Questions remain about whether the aid will be sufficient. Also, the Defence Secretary wants the government to increase spending on UK armed forces - to be prepared to invest more to keep people safe. Army personnel are being cut from 82,000 to 73,000 soldiers after 2021’s defence review. The new head of the armed forces said he had never known such a clear threat ‘as the brutal aggression of President Putin’. He likened the Ukraine war to the build up to World War Two.

Since the 2021 coup which deposed Myanmar’s democratically elected government, the Burmese military has been attacking its own civilians. The junta that controls the government continues to destroy religious buildings with artillery attacks and airstrikes on civilian areas in the Christian-majority Chin state. Residents in some regions have formed militias to resist those destroying religious buildings (often used as shelters during attacks). In Chin state, over 35 churches and 15 other Christian-affiliated buildings were destroyed between February 2021 and January 2022. In Kayah state 12 churches were destroyed in the same period. In May 2021 the military continuously shelled Sacred Heart Church in the capital of Kayah state, killing four who were sheltering there and causing extensive damage. Myanmar’s cardinal published a plea to the regime, urging them to stop targeting religious buildings. The military ignored his request and are continuing to shell many more churches.

In what has been called Myanmar's ‘Tiananmen moment’, Sister Ann Roza knelt in front of armed security forces to stop them firing on civilians. She was giving treatment at a clinic when groups of protesters passed by; then they were fired on and beaten by the police and military. ‘I was shocked and thought today is the day I will die. I was asking and begging them not to do it and was crying like a mad person, like a mother hen protecting the chicks. I thought it would be better that I die instead of lots of people. I was crying out loud. My throat was in pain. My intention was to help people escape and be free to protest and to stop the security forces. I was begging them. At that time I was not afraid.’

Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan has warned of an attempted military coup, after the country's armed forces said he and his cabinet must resign. The army ‘must obey the people and elected authorities’, he told thousands of supporters in the capital Yerevan. His opponents held a rival rally. The military's top brass was angered by the PM's sacking of a commander. Mr Pashinyan has faced protests after losing last year's bloody conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh - an enclave internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians since a 1994 truce. During the six weeks of fighting late in 2020, Azerbaijan not only recaptured areas around the enclave but also took the key town of Shusha inside it. Under the Russian-brokered deal that emerged shortly afterwards, Azerbaijan keeps the areas it has captured.

Slaughtering Nigerian Christians continues unabated. An average of ten Christians are killed daily. A recent episode was at the hands of the government, which executed six Christian soldiers in Abuja on false charges. A Muslim colonel stole weapons from an armoury, but six Christian soldiers on duty got blamed for the theft. Their lawyer claimed they died ‘purely because they were Igbo and Christian. The government of today detests Christianity and detests the Igbo tribe.’ He had petitioned the government to provide a defence, but his attempt was denied and they were executed in secret. Nigeria’s constitution gives the military no authority to execute people, and prisoners should be able to appeal to a higher court. They didn’t get their rights. The military now claims that they were never executed, but they have not been seen by their families or in public.

The armed forces are protecting people in a broader range of areas than ever, including coronavirus testing. The UK military will receive £4bn a year over the next four years to fund space and cyber defence projects such as an artificial intelligence agency. This could create 40,000 new jobs. Defence secretary Ben Wallace said ‘The extra spending is on top of the government's manifesto to increase the budget. When I looked across at the armed forces today I saw them with equipment that was out-of-date, I saw our adversaries across the world having better equipment, the ability to attack us and harm us getting wider and wider from our capabilities. When that happens, you need to modernise your forces. Sometimes you must let go of some older capabilities and that takes money in order to create the headroom to invest.’