The martyrs from Libya

Egypt has always struggled with tough economic conditions and high unemployment rates. This has often meant that men in the family go looking for work in neighbburing countries to Egypt, to help the family survive.

One such place that used to be a safe option for Egyptian Christians to seek work, was Lybia. In the latest sign of Coptic Christians’ troubles spreading beyond Egypt, seven Christian men were executed on a beachoutside Benghazi, on Friday 28th February 2014.

All the martyrs were young Coptic Christian men between the ages of 17 and 25. The bodies were found with gunshots to the head in an area where kidnappings and assassinations are common and islamist militants are active.

Witnesses recount, “These gunmen had gone door-todoor through an apartment building searching for residents who were Christian.” “The Islamists then dragged the men from their apartment, bound their hands, and shot each of them in the  head”.