No one was hurt when Aleppo’s Emmanuel Armenian Evangelical Church was hit in a rocket attack on Sunday 17 January, leaving the church badly damaged, but thankfully missing congregants who had met earlier that morning.
The 200-strong congregation met at 10 am for their regular Sunday worship and afterwards several activities for different groups took place. The last to leave the building was the youth group. ‘Thanks to God no one was hurt and the church was empty!’ wrote a Barnabas Fund partner the next day.
Conditions in Aleppo are particularly distressing at present. Over the weekend, many rockets hit Christian communities in the city, killing seven people and leaving 53 wounded.
Temperatures plunged to -6⁰ Celsius and an outbreak of swine flu H1N1 had, by 21 January, already taken 43 lives. Scores more are in intensive care and ‘daily we hear about one or two deaths’, wrote the Barnabas partner. Poor nutrition coupled with no fuel for heating and high pollution levels have left Aleppo’s Christians particularly susceptible to illness.
Barnabas is working through its partner organisations on the ground to provide food, blankets, clothing, medication and fuel for heating.
