Displaying items by tag: destabilisation

Afghanistan and its neighbours have spent decades relying on the US and NATO to resolve the country's problems. Wikipedia reports there are up to 18,000 Afghan Christians (3,300 from a Muslim background) practising their faith secretly in the country. Displacement and suffering experienced by those forced to flee their homes and communities is not new for the brave people of this land. Escalating conflict recently has resulted in thousands of new displaced people being registered each week. Around 327,000 people were displaced in 2020, 80% of them women and children. Now that foreign troops are almost gone, security and peace are going with them. The Russians and Chinese fear the further destabilisation of Afghanistan by the Taliban will spill over to five neighbouring Central Asian countries which have their own history of jihadist violence.

82% of Venezuelans live in poverty. Opposition lawmakers attempted to fire judges accused of a judicial ‘coup’ to keep socialist President Nicolas Maduro in power. Youths build barricades, burn rubbish and hurl rocks at soldiers and police, who respond with tear gas and water cannon, in the political turmoil. This violent political crisis is raising concerns for democracy and stability in this volatile major oil-exporting country. While Venezuelan churches usually ask parishioners to help spread peace and love throughout their communities, now in Caracas the Episcopal Church’s bishops are calling parishioners to support violence against the government. They handed out leaflets last Sunday, calling on members to participate in civil disobedience against President Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party. The leaflet said, ‘It is time to ask very seriously and responsibly if civil disobedience, peaceful demonstrations, just claims to national and international public powers, and civic protests are not valid and timely.’ The Church called the government ‘morally unacceptable and therefore reprehensible.’ See