Tag Archives: United Nations

United Nations Confirms ISIS Selling Young Girls as Sex Slaves

The United Nations has officially confirmed something long believed among opponents of Islamic terrorist group ISIS:  they are selling girls under 10 as sex slaves for as little as $165.

Zainab Bangura, the UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict, confirmed the document first reportedly found in November 2014 is legitimate and being used by the terrorists.

“The girls get peddled like barrels of petrol,” she told Bloomberg. “One girl can be sold and bought by five or six different men. Sometimes these fighters sell the girls back to their families for thousands of dollars of ransom.”

Bangura said that girls from ages 1 to 9 are being sold for $165.  Girls in their teens fell to $124 and women over 40 sell for as little as $41.

“They have a machinery; they have a program,” said Bangura. “They have a manual on how you treat these women. They have a marriage bureau which organizes all of these ‘marriages’ and the sale of women. They have a price list.”

“It’s not an ordinary rebel group,” she added. “When you dismiss them as such, then you are using the tools you are used to. This is different. They have the combination of a conventional military and a well-run organized state.”

ISIS has already released a document claiming the buying and selling of women is acceptable under the Koran.  The claim by ISIS reportedly comes after taking the idea of selling women from Islamic terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Saudi Prince Says Iran Deal Worse Than North Korea Deal

One of America’s biggest allies in the Middle East is not happy with the Iran nuclear deal and one of their major leaders spoke out against it.

Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who had been Saudi ambassador to the United States from 1981 to 2005, has written a column where he compares the Iran nuclear deal to a similar deal with North Korea that failed.

Prince Bandar claims the failure of the Iran deal will have worse consequences.

The Prince writes in his column that former President Bill Clinton would not have agreed to the deal had he known all the facts and that the deal with North Korea showed “the strategic foreign policy analysis was wrong and there was a major intelligence failure” according to a translation of the piece by the Washington Post.

He says the same situation applies to the Iran deal “where the strategic foreign policy analysis, the national intelligence information, and America’s allies in the region’s intelligence all predict not only the same outcome of the North Korean nuclear deal but worse – with the billions of dollars that Iran will have access to.”

Prince Bandar said that Saudi leaders are looking at the possibility that they will have to act without or against America in dealing with Iran.

“People in my region now are relying on God’s will, and consolidating their local capabilities and analysis with everybody else except our oldest and most powerful ally,” he writes.

The writing seemed to back up the claims of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the proposed deal.

“Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday. “One cannot prevent an agreement when negotiators are willing to make more and more concessions to those who, even during the talks, keep chanting: ‘Death to America.’ ”

The United Nations voted to endorse the Iranian deal Monday morning.

Masons Rebuild Timbuktu’s Tombs After Destruction by Terrorists

When radical Islamic terrorists attempted to take over Mali in 2012, one of their initial steps was to destroy anything in the region that did not line up with their radical form of Islam.  One of those locations was a United Nations world heritage site containing a series of Muslim tombs.

“We’re going to destroy everything before we apply Shariah in this city,” a terrorist spokesman said at the time.

Now, three years after the terrorists were driven out of the country by a combined African military force and French military action, there is a sign of restoration as masons have banded together to rebuild the tombs the terrorists destroyed.

The tombs were little more than piles of mud and rock when the terrorists completed their destructive actions.  Now, a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country reported that 8 of 14 tombs have been finished and that the work on the remaining 6 are near completion.

“We have kept our promise. This is why we are here to say ‘no’ to extremism, and ‘yes’ to peace, development, and, at the same time, pay homage to the Timbuktu community,” said UNESCO’s director-general Irina Bokova told reporters.

The mason used traditional building techniques including local stone and banco, a mixture of clay and straw.

The city’s library, which contained ancient manuscripts and other artifacts, is also back in operation thanks to hundreds of residents who smuggled out the valued items from the library and hid them in homes and other locations to keep them from the terrorists.

Belgium Rescues Over 200 Syrian Christians In Secret Operation

The Belgian government has carried out a secret operation to rescue 240 people, over 200 of them Christians, from the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The Christians will be taken to Belgium and offered asylum by the Belgian government.

The secret two-month operation is still being mostly shrouded in secrecy by the Belgian government, likely to keep sources protected from Islamic extremists in the region.

“We did it via civil society organizations which could get them out of there,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson.

“The minority Christians were selected by a citizen ‘action committee’ run by a Belgian diplomat and a psychiatrist with a network of contacts in the country,” AFP news agency wrote. “They left Aleppo in small groups and in seven phases.”

Belgium has taken in about 5,500 refugees from Syria since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

“This is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation,” UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “It is a population that needs the support of the world but is instead living in dire conditions and sinking deeper into poverty.”

Sudan’s Christian-Persecuting President On The Run

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has made persecution of Christians a major part of his Islamic dominated government, is on the run after the International Criminal Court declared him a war criminal.

The President returned to Sudan from South Africa, defying a court order to stay in that nation while the government of South Africa considered the ICC’s request for al-Bashir’s arrest.  He had been attending an African Union summit in Pretoria at the time of the warrant being issued for his arrest.

The South African government eventually issued the order for arrest about two hours after al-Bashir flew out of the country.

“We still remain quietly optimistic and determined to see justice done in this case,” deputy prosecutor James Stewart told the BBC.

U.N. head Ban Ki-moon reminded nations that have signed the ICC’s statues they’re obligated to arrest those who are sought by the court.

“The president of the assembly expresses his deep concern about the negative consequences for the court in case of non-execution of the warrants by states parties and, in this regard, urges them to respect their obligations to cooperate with the court,” said in a statement H.E. Mr. Sidiki Kaba, president of the Assembly of States to the Rome Statute of the ICC.

The charges are in connection with the genocide in Darfur and al-Bashir’s actions in setting up a strict Sharia law system in his country that included the killing of non-Muslims.  While he will be able to move freely within Sudan, he will not be able to leave the country for fear of arrest.

ISIS Using Water As Weapon

The Islamic terrorist group ISIS is reducing the water flowing into Iraq’s Anbar province as the government is trying to retake land from the terrorists.

The tactic is not new to Middle East conflicts.  ISIS had previously restricted water flowing through the ISIS controlled town of Fallujah but reopened locks after residents complained about the lack of water.

Anbar Provincial Council Member Taha Abdul-Ghani told the Associated Press the terrorists are blocking water at a dam on the Euphrates river that will dry up irrigation system and water treatment plans for the government and tribes that are opposed to ISIS.  Other areas to the south and central areas of the country would be provided water from the Tigris River.

The United Nations quickly condemned the terrorist’s actions.

“The use of water as a tool of war is to be condemned in no uncertain terms,” the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters. “These kinds of reports are disturbing, to say the least.”

He said the U.N. would work to bring water to the impacted residents of the region.

Military experts say the withdrawl of water also lowers the level of the river to where terrorists would be able to walk across, allowing for attacks in locations that previously had been impeded by the water.

Residents of Habbaniya, Husaybah and Khalidiyah have been fleeing out of fear of an assault by the terrorists.

ISIS Forces Civilians To Watch Executions In Amphitheater

The Islamic terrorist group ISIS, attempting to solidify their takeover of the ancient city of Palmyra, have forced the residents of the town to fill an ancient amphitheater to watch the execution of 20 men.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the men were accused of serving as members of the army for President Bashir al-Assad.  The method of execution was not reported by the group.

The United Nations World Heritage site was overrun by the terrorists last week.  The U.N. also reported that residents told them the Syrian government forced them to remain until all troops withdrew from the city, placing them at the mercy of the terrorists.

The terrorists have also killed 67 civilians, including 14 children and 12 women, in the city of al-Sikhni.  The terrorists said they were harboring regime forces to hide them from ISIS.

The UN has also reported that the terrorists burned a young woman alive because she would not be used as a sex slave by the group.

“They are institutionalizing sexual violence,” Zainab Bangura, the U.N.’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, said of the Islamic State. “The brutalization of women and girls is central to their ideology.”

ISIS Terrorists Control Half of Syria

Islamic terrorist group ISIS officially captured the ancient city of Palmyra on May 20th, meaning the terrorists now control over half of Syria.

The United Nations is particularly concerned about the fall of Palmyra, which is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“Palmyra tells us all cultures are linked. There’s no pure culture, no point in imposing a single culture on others,” Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, said.

Tim Muret of Open Doors told the Christian Post that the news is covering Palmyra because of the UNESCO connection but that many Christian villages being destroyed by the terrorists are being ignored.

“This certainly makes a lot of news in the states because this is a UNESCO heritage site, but the kidnappings, killings, and all the villages being destroyed usually don’t make the news.  These too have historical significance, and many of the villages are Christian,” declared Muret. “We do our best as an organization to educate churches that what you see in the news is really just the tip of the iceberg.”

“Palmyra is an another example of how IS has no regard for civilization or human life,” added Muret.

Muret also added because of the terrorists the Christian population in Syria has significantly declined over the last few years.

“The number of Christians has now dwindled down to 1.1 million or about 5 percent of the Syrian population.” Muret emphasized that Christian villages and populations are essential heritage sites too, “because those populations and much of that culture is the cradle of some of the earliest Christian communities.” The Apostle Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, which at the time had a rapidly expanding Christian population.

ISIS Captures Key Iraqi City

In a stunning reversal of recent fortune, the Islamic terrorist group ISIS has finally captured the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

Ramadi, only 70 miles from the country’s capital city of Baghdad, is the largest city in Western Iraq.  It is also the regional capital for the Anbar province and is a major area for Sunni muslims.

The takeover of the town was confirmed by Ramadi Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisy. He said that anti-terrorist forces were driven out to the east of the city.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged the advance by the terrorists but said that the battle for the city was far from over.

“It is possible to see the kind of attack we have in Ramadi, but I am absolutely confident in the days ahead that will be reversed,” Kerry said on Monday during a visit to Seoul, CNN reported. “Large numbers of Daesh were killed in the last few days, and will be in the next days because that seems to be the only thing they understand.”

Local officials say the terrorists have been carrying out mass murders and burning bodies in the streets.  At least 250 civilians have been murdered by the terrorists in two days.  Many of those executed are supporters of the current government and leadership.

The United Nations says that in the last month over 110,000 residents have fled the city in advance of the terrorists.

Nepal Quake Death Toll Highest In Nation’s History

The death toll from the massive earthquakes and aftershocks in Nepal has become the largest in the country’s history.

Officials confirmed the death toll has passed 8,500.

The official count of 8,583 passed the previous record of 8,519 set in 1934.  The 1934 quake also led to the deaths of thousands in neighboring India which was spared the same level of devastation in the dual quakes.

Officials also reported over 250,000 homes confirmed destroyed by the quake or resulting landslides.

Hundreds are still missing including 112 foreigners, although officials said those foreigners could have simply left the country without informing officials they were survivors of the quake.

United Nations officials say the death toll in the region could go higher in the coming months as refugees who lost their homes and belongings have to face disease, starvation and the upcoming monsoon season.  The UN reports impassable roads and the country’s looming monsoon season are hampering relief efforts.

The UN is attempting to raise $423 million from countries around the world for relief in Nepal but only 16% of that goal has been raised.

The rescue efforts have also been hampered by ongoing aftershocks.  A 5.7 magnitude aftershock struck the region Saturday.