An Egyptian Christian man was abducted by armed Islamist terrorists on 18 January while travelling on a bus to the north Sinai city of El Arish.
According to reports, gunmen stopped the bus about 30 km from the city and examined the identity cards of everyone on board looking for members of the police or military. When they found the Christian’s ID card they carried him off the bus and let it depart.
The man’s family said he had already been forced to flee El Arish in February 2017, along with 355 other Christian families, after terrorists linked to IS (Islamic State) executed seven Christians in the city in less than a month. He was returning there on personal business matters.
A police search is underway, but hopes are fading that the kidnapped man will be found alive.
In January 2018 Bassem Shehata Haraz, a young Christian man, was gunned down by masked militants in El Arish when he returned to his home town after fleeing the region in 2017. In February that year IS-linked terrorists issued a threat to kill all Christians in Sinai.
