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Tag: kidnapped

  • Kidnapped children of Ukraine still missing after two years of Putin’s invasion

    Kidnapped children of Ukraine still missing after two years of Putin’s invasion

    As Vladimir Putin continues to attack Ukraine for the 2nd year, families have little hope of getting their kidnapped children back soon.

    At least 20,000 kids were taken from their homes and brought to other countries where they were hurt, starved, and kept away from their families.

    Russia has been accused of taking a lot of children from their families, and people think that the actual number is even bigger.

    Maria Lvova-Belova, who works for the Russian government, said proudly that the state has moved 300,000 Ukrainian children from their destroyed homes.

    Putin’s forces even attacked orphanages, so now many children are being brainwashed by the Russians without anyone looking for them.

    “It will take many years and continue for generations,” said Wayne Jordash, a top prosecutor for war crimes, to Metro.

    Mr Jordash spends his time listening to parents who lost their children to Putin’s forces.

    He said the stories he hears are really terrible and will always be in his memory.

    He said that it’s hard to forget when a parent talks about their missing child.

    But the saddest part is when the parents are no longer alive to tell Mr. Jordash about their children on their own.

    “I talked to the neighbors to find out what happened to the children who may have been taken to Russia because their parents died in a missile attack,” he said.

    ‘Sometimes grown-ups talk about their sadness, fear, and worry in a way that is even more surprising than how kids talk about it. ‘

    We are still learning about what is happening to children, but it is clear that they are being made to have a military-style education to make them stop feeling at home.

    Kids have said they can’t get things they need, and only older kids can tell people what’s going on at home.

    The International Criminal Court said that Russia tried to make the children learn new things and threatened to hurt them if they didn’t.

    A teenager was told that he would be taken to a boarding school where he would learn and understand everything.

    We were sitting in the hall when someone yelled, “Glory to Ukraine. ” Then they were removed from the hall. I don’t know what happened to him.

    One mom, Inesda Vertosh, said her son doesn’t want to talk about his time in the camp yet.

    “He looks at me and says, ‘Mom, I don’t want to tell you because it would keep you up at night. ‘”

    “We are hearing that the kidnapped children are being treated badly. They don’t have enough food, medical care, or love. They know that their families in Ukraine miss them. ”

    ‘These kids have been very hurt mentally and are scared they won’t see their families again. ‘

    Only 300 children who were taken have come back, and it doesn’t seem like more will come back.

    In March, the International Criminal Court put out warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova for moving children unlawfully.

    This is the first time a court has issued an arrest warrant for the leader of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, but bringing them back home is taking a long time.

    Many people have forgotten about the children who were taken from their parents. This is one reason why the problem still exists.

    Mr Jordash said that the media is not giving enough attention to the terrible crimes and it doesn’t seem like they are treating it with the horror it deserves.

    ‘There are many bad crimes happening, and people are losing interest because the news is always on. ‘

    It’s really important to understand how children can be brainwashed and treated badly by invading forces, especially now with the threat of World War Three hanging over Europe.

    In 2017, a report showed that 1,600 children were taken and made to fight by a group called Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

    In the early 2000s in northern Uganda, the Lord’s Resistance Army kidnapped children and sexually assaulted them.

    Mr Jordash said that taking children is not only happening in Ukraine. Many times in wars during colonial times, we have seen the same thing happen again and again, and it’s dangerous for us.

    The Ukrainians are going through a tough time because they are facing the same crimes and horrors. The US Congress is delaying military aid to help them.

  • Abducted U.N. workers released after 18 months in Yemen

    Abducted U.N. workers released after 18 months in Yemen

    The United Nations said Friday that five staff members who were kidnapped in Yemen 18 months ago have been released.

    In a brief statement, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said all “available information suggests that all five colleagues are in good health.”


    Haq named the freed men as Akm Sufiul Anam, Mazen Bawazir, Bakeel al-Mahdi, Mohammed al-Mulaiki and Khaled Mokhtar Sheikh. All worked for the U.N. Department of Security and Safety, he said

    “The secretary-general reiterates that kidnapping is an inhumane and unjustifiable crime, and calls for the perpetrators to be held accountable,” Haq said. The identity of the kidnappers was not revealed, and no details were provided about what led to the captives’ release.

    In February 2022, suspected al-Qaida militants abducted five U.N. workers in southern Yemen’s Abyan province, Yemeni officials told the Associated Press at the time.


    Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has been active in southern Yemen for years. It is considered one of the global network’s most dangerous branches and has attempted to carry out attacks on the U.S. mainland.

    Kidnappings are frequent in Yemen, an impoverished nation where armed tribesmen and militants take hostages to swap for prisoners or cash.

    Yemen has been ravaged by war since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the country’s capital, and much of the north, and forced the government into exile.

    A Saudi-led coalition that included the United Arab Emirates intervened the following year to try to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government to power.

    Al-Qaida has since exploited the conflict to cement its presence in the country.

  • Kidnapped women and children freed in Burkina Faso

    Kidnapped women and children freed in Burkina Faso

    Security forces have rescued 66 women and children who were kidnapped by armed fighters in northern Burkina Faso last week.

    Armed men seized the women and their children on January 12 and 13 outside two villages in the district of Arbinda, in the Sahel region’s Soum province.

    Security forces conducted a rescue operation and freed 27 women and 39 babies, children and young girls in the adjacent Centre-Nord region, national broadcaster Radiodiffusion Television du Burkina (RTP) said on Friday.

    “They have found freedom after eight long days in the hands of their kidnappers,” an RTP presenter said.

    In its main evening news bulletin, RTB, referring to the army “operation”, showed images of the women freed and brought to the capital, Ouagadougou.

    Several government and security officials confirmed the news, Reuters and AFP news agencies reported.

    The abduction prompted alarm from the United Nations, while the country’s military government warned of a rise in attacks on civilians.

    Burkina Faso is one of several countries in West Africa battling a rampant armed uprising with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

    Armed rebels have occupied territory in the country’s arid and mainly rural north, executing hundreds of villagers and displacing thousands more in the process.

    They have also blockaded certain areas in recent months and made it increasingly dangerous to deliver supplies to trapped citizens.

    Faced with acute food shortages, many villagers have resorted to picking wild fruit, leaves and seeds to feed their families. They say venturing into the bush makes them vulnerable to attacks.

    On Thursday, two suspected attacks in the country’s north and northwest killed at least 18 people, including 16 vigilantes supporting the army.

    Captain Ibrahim Traore, leader of the military government that seized power last September, said in December that his aim was to take back territory occupied by “hordes of terrorists”.

    Last week, he said the armed rebels were switching tactics to “focus on civilians”.

    Source: Algazeera

  • Priests, laypeople and a religious sister kidnapped in Cameroon’s west, freed

    5 priests, 1 religious sister and 3 laypeople who were kidnapped on Sept. 16 in the Cameroonian diocese of Mamfe are now free, the diocese announced.

    “It is with great joy that I announce the release” of five Catholic priests, one consecrated sister and two laypeople, Bishop Aloysius Fondong Abangalo wrote in his communiqué dated October 23.

    The Mamfe diocese located in South West region is one of two restive regions in Cameroon where separatists have been waging war to the federal authorities since 2017.

    On the evening of September 16, the Christians were abducted and St Mary’s Church in Nchang (South West region) was burned down.

    Murders, ransackings and kidnappings have become frequent in this region, where armed separatist groups regularly target schools and teachers in particular, but also Catholic and Protestant churches and their prelates. But the bishops of the region assure that Friday’s kidnapping is “completely unprecedented” in its scale.

    Last month, Archbishop Andrew Nkea, the president of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, did not give any details of the attack, did not attribute it to anyone in particular and said that the kidnappers had given “no concrete reason” for the act.

    In the communiqué issued by Bishop Aloysius Fondong Abangalo, Sunday, no information on the kidnappers was given.

    “Taking away the freedom of our brothers and sisters to make money at all cost is inhumane”, the bishop of Mamfe simply condemned.

    Source: African News