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Two Aleppo Bishops Kidnapped in 2013 Reportedly Still Alive

  • Veronica Neffinger

    Veronica Neffinger wrote her first poem at age seven and went on to study English in college, focusing on 18th century literature. When she is not listening to baseball games, enjoying the…

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  • Updated Apr 26, 2017

Good news has surfaced about two bishops of Aleppo who were abducted in 2013. Christian Today cites a report from the Assyrian International News Agency stating that the two bishops are still alive.

The Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Aleppo Youhanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Bishop of Aleppo Boulos Yazigi were abducted on April 22, 2013.

The Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Beirut, Daniel Kourie, said in a speech on the four-year mark of the bishops’ disappearance that, as far as he knew “the two bishops are still alive [and] those who believe otherwise must give us evidence for their claim.”

The two bishops were abducted in fighting taking place during the ongoing Syrian Civil War. It is estimated that there have been as many as 470,000 casualties of the conflict which has been ongoing since 2011.

Bishops Ibrahim and Yazigi were reportedly returning from a humanitarian mission in Turkey when they were kidnapped at gunpoint.

Kourie and others have called on government officials and authorities to aid in the search for the missing bishops.

In his hopeful speech about the two kidnapped bishops, Kourie also condemned the “religious and ethnic cleansing in Syria, Iraq and Egypt.”

 

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/the_guitar_mann

Publication date: April 26, 2017