The past few decades have been very hard on Christians in Iraq. Economic and political uncertainty, coupled with large-scale persecution that culminated in the rise of the Islamic State, led to a massive exodus which reduced the Christian population from over 1 million to between 150,000 and 250,000 today.

“Many of the people in South Sudan have never known anything else. There are generations that were born into war. And the last war was terrible, so much was destroyed. Schools, infrastructure, hospitals, churches, lives, many women and children, and there was also an attempt to eliminate people with a certain education, people who could become future leaders.”

According to locals who stayed in Vorzel, the seminary was plundered and devastated. Besides the damage caused by two rockets, Russian troops looted the building in mid-March. Witnesses say the soldiers spent two nights in the building.

“The deterioration of the situation in the country is due to the multiplication of armed gangs, the constant cases of kidnapping, the ubiquitous insecurity, inflation, especially the rise in the prices of essential goods, bloody incidents and a flood of upheavals and acts of cruelty.”

“In jail, we were tortured. The officers told my husband that if he did not confess, they would rape me in front of him, and so he confessed, even though we were both innocent."

"I remember a small child who did not have anything to eat for two days while they were on the road. Many of them have eyes that look as though they are made of glass, faces that have been turned into stone. They are having trouble understanding what is happening around them."