Members of the militant Islamic ISIS network have claimed responsibility for the attack, which may have left as many as 50,000 people homeless.

Brazilian missionary Fr. Edegard Silva in Pemba told ACN the people were becoming used to these attacks. “They were already expecting it," he said, "because over the past two weeks these evildoers and insurgents had been carrying out a series of attacks in the Nangade region, and almost all the communities close to Palma has already been attacked.”

Asked in February why he was making a tour of Iraq at a time of growing political tension and worries about the spread of Covid, Pope Francis replied: “I am the pastor of people who are suffering.”

ISIS destroyed the village church of Tel Hormiz, one of the last homes of the Church of the East. Sam Sweeney Reports

Pope Francis has sent condolences to the people of Austria after deadly terror attacks in Vienna that began Monday evening near Seitenstettengasse synagogue at roughly 8 p.m. when multiple suspects opened fire on passers-by.

Dominican Sister Ban Madleen was applying to visit her family

A daily guide to what's happening in the Catholic Church

The Islamists do not separate the religious from the secular