Global campaign calls for the release of seven church leaders

CSW representatives and supporters participated in a peaceful protest outside the Eritrean Embassy in London on 21 August calling for the release of seven Eritrean church leaders. They have been detained arbitrarily for over two decades.

The event was held under the banner of Voices for Justice, a global campaign bringing together Christian organisations, churches and individuals around the world to mark the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.

A series of prayer and protest events have been organised in several countries over 21 and 22 August, including in Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Switzerland and the USA, calling for the release of the seven Eritrean church leaders.

The detainees are Rev Haile Naizge, Chair of the Full Gospel Church, and Dr Kuflu Gebremeskel, Chair of the Eritrean Evangelical Alliance, who were arrested on 23 May 2004.

Rev Million (Meron) Gebreselassie, pastor of the Rhema Evangelical Church in the city of Massawa and an anaesthetist at Massawa Hospital, was detained less than two weeks later on 3 June 2004.

On 19 November 2004 the authorities detained Dr Futsum Gebrenegus, at the time Eritrea’s only psychiatrist, and Dr Tekleab Menghisteab, a highly respected physician, both of whom are Orthodox priests, along with Rev Gebremedhin Gebregiorgis.

While all three belong to a denomination that is ostensibly permitted to operate by the Eritrean government, they were part of the Orthodox Church’s renewal movement, Medhane Alem, which had attracted a large youth following, and which the late patriarch, Abune Antonios, had refused to close down following a government order.

Rev Kidane Weldou, senior pastor of the Full Gospel Church, was seized from the streets of Asmara on 18 March 2005.

It is believed that all seven are being held in Wengel Mermera Criminal Investigation Centre.

The Eritrean government continues to detain members of permitted religious communities arbitrarily. In April 2025 Rev Gebremeskel Hagos, an Orthodox priest based in Switzerland who travelled to Eritrea following the death of his father, was detained incommunicado. In July, Sheikh Adam Shaban, a respected Muslim cleric and the director of the Quran Memorisation Centre in Ghinda, was also detained arbitrarily, reportedly after honouring a summons from the authorities.

At the end of the event in London a letter signed by all who attended was delivered to the Embassy on behalf of voices for justice calling for their release, and for the right to freedom of religion to be accorded in full to every religious community in the country.

CSW’s CEO Scot Bower, who attended the protest in London, said: ‘We are proud to join with other organisations and individuals across the world as part of the Voices for Justice campaign in calling for the release of the seven church leaders. We have not forgotten them and we will not stop campaigning until they are finally free and reunited with their loved ones. Since 2002, when the Eritrean government outlawed religious practices not affiliated with Sunni Islam or the Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran or Orthodox Christian denominations, we have witnessed thousands of people belonging to non-authorised religious communities being imprisoned. And as we see in the cases of Dr Gebrenegus, Dr Menghisteab, Rev Gebregiorgis, Rev Hagos and Sheikh Shaban, even those from recognised religious communities are targeted by this repressive regime. We reiterate our call for them to be set free, along with Revs Naizge, Gebremeskel, Gebreselassie Weldou and every other prisoner of conscience, without condition or further delay.’

Note to Editors:

1. CSW Nigeria is hosting an online prayer meeting for the seven church leaders on 22 August at 7pm (BST). Click here to register to attend.