Two Chaldean nuns from Daughters of Mary Order, Sister Miskintah and Sister Utoor Joseph, as well as Assyrians Hala Salim, Sarah Khoshaba, and Aram Sabah are feared to be missing, according to Assyrian television channel Ishtar TV.
The two Sisters were responsible for managing an orphanage in Mosul, Iraq, in an area near their Miskintah Church. When Mosul fell to the Sunni jihadist radicals of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the nuns took the orphans and fled to the city of Dohuk for the hope of a more secure environment. The nuns then reportedly returned back to Mosul on Saturday to check up on their monastery, but they then vanished shortly thereafter.
The Assyrian International News Agency believes the two nuns had been kidnapped by Iraqi Muslims.
Christians throughout Mosul continue to flee the area, as it is commonly understood to now be unsafe for non-Muslims. Another contributing factor was that basic supplies such as food and medicine were virtually non-existent. After ISIS’s takeover, there are also now serious issues with electricity and water.
Mosul fell into the hands of the radical Sunni Islamists of ISIS on June 10. Shortly thereafter, the militants bombed an Armenian church and looted the Church of the Holy Spirit.
ISIS has imposed the Koranic Shariah law in the Mosul area, and reportedly has begun collecting the jizya (poll) taxes from Christians. On June 21, ISIS militants raped a mother and her daughter, and killed four other women, just for not wearing the veil required under the Shariah law of the Koran.
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