Humanitarian groups are concerned that the surprise offensive launched by al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) against the Syrian government last week could put Syrian Christians in even greater danger, and they were already struggling to survive after a decade of civil war and the rise of the Islamic State.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a group founded in 1947 that brings humanitarian aid to persecuted Christians around the world, said on Tuesday that about 25,000 Christians are in Aleppo, the city targeted first by HTS insurgents and now by a “devastating” Syrian army counter-offensive.
“Basic services are paralyzed, with only two hospitals operating for critical cases. Food supplies are insufficient, prices have soared, and the population faces the dual threat of bombings and insecurity on the ground,” said ACN’s project manager for Syria, Marielle Boutros.
“There is a constant climate of fear. People are trapped; no one can enter or leave the city. An Armenian doctor was killed by a sniper, and a bus trying to leave for Hassake was also attacked,” she said.
“Schools are not operating, and banks have stopped functioning, leaving people without access to their salaries,” she added.
“People are deeply frightened. The airstrikes, along with the strict control of the rebel factions that have taken the city, have turned survival into a daily struggle,” said ACN Secretary-General Philipp Ozores.
“This is a moment for unity and action,” Ozores said. “ACN urges the Christian community around the world to unite in prayer for Aleppo, asking for peace, protection, and hope for all citizens.”
International Christian Concern (ICC) said on Tuesday that conditions across Syria have become dangerous for Christians and other minority religions, as the regime of dictator Bashar Assad — currently rocked on its heels by the sudden and surprisingly effective HTS offensive — provides the only meager protection they have.
“Faced with an array of sanctions from the West for his ongoing, egregious violations of human rights, including the use of chemical weapons against his own people, Assad makes some attempt to cast himself as secular and a protector of Christian communities,” ICC noted.
“Christians give little credence to these claims, which ring hollow when held up against actions like his regime’s 76 attacks on Christian places of worship in 2022,” the group said.
The Christian Post on Sunday quoted church leaders in the city of Aleppo who said their community is in “grave danger” now that Islamist militias have seized control of the city.
Joseph Tobji, the Maronite archbishop of Aleppo, said residents were caught by surprise due to the speed of the HTS offensive, and had little time to stockpile food.
HTS forces have documented their takeover of Aleppo with social media posts, some of which show the jihadis tearing down Christmas decorations. The Christian Post noted HTS has a history of “enforcing a strict Sunni supremacist ideology with violent persecution,” including “executions, torture, sexual violence, and arbitrary detentions.”
John Eibner, president of Switzerland-based Christian Solidarity International (CSI), called on President-elect Donald Trump to “fulfill his pledge” to protect persecuted Christians.
“Christians and others who value religious freedom and other fundamental human rights should insist that this pre-election pledge is honored,” Eibner said.
Trump told the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in February 2024 that if reelected, he would “create a new federal task force to “investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment and persecution against Christians in America.”
Protecting Christians in other countries is a much taller order, but Trump promised to meet the challenge.
In October 2024, Trump blasted Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for doing “nothing” to protect 120,000 Armenian Christians who were “horrifically persecuted and forcibly displaced” when Muslim Azerbaijan invaded the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, destroying the Armenian Republic of Artsakh.
“When I am President, I will protect persecuted Christians, I will work to stop the violence and ethnic cleansing, and we will restore peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Trump said.
