ISIS kills 28 Christians in Libya.

(Baonghean.vn) - Submission or death. That is the message the Islamic State (IS) organization is sending to Christians in the Middle East and Africa. In a video posted on social media on April 19, IS filmed the execution of at least 28 people they considered "citizens of the cross" of "enemies of the Ethiopian Church."

ISIS takes hostages to the execution site. Photo: Internet

The nearly 30-minute video shows ISIS beheading the first 12 people in Cyrenaica (on the eastern coast) and shooting 16 more victims in Fezzan (in the south). According to Ethiopia's Minister of Communications, Redwan Hussein, those executed in the video were Ethiopian migrants captured by a Libyan group.

Similar to previous executions, the first 12 victims were forced to wear orange jumpsuits before being executed. Afterward, an anonymous figure declared, “The massacre of Muslims will not be tolerated… Christians, we have returned.”

This is the first time ISIS has targeted Ethiopians. Ethiopia is a country of 90 million people, two-thirds of whom are Christian. Many Ethiopians have left the country to find work, often crossing into Libya for employment or to reach Europe.

Immediately after the video was released, Bernadette Meehan, the US representative to the Security Council, strongly condemned "the brutal massacre of Ethiopian Christians carried out by ISIS terrorists in Libya."

Through the video, ISIS wants to send a message: obey, pay, or die. The terrorists threaten, “The Islamic State will expand and reach you… you will convert to Islam or pay the Jizya (a tax for non-Muslims) to live in peace. For those who do not comply, men will be killed, women will be enslaved, and property will be confiscated.”

Chu Thanh

According to Le Monde, April 20th.