Updated 5pm, 21st April, 2015
The Islamic State has released a video online which purportedly shows militants shooting and beheading of 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
The 29 minute video appears to show 15 men being beheaded on a beach and another 15 being shot in the head in scrubland, although the numbers killed remain somewhat sketchy. The men are referred to via a subtitle as "worshippers of the cross belonging to the hostile Ethiopian church".
The incident has provoked strong responses from governments around the world, including that of Ethiopia which condemned the killings. It comes two months after IS beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians on a beach in Libya.
In a statement, Bishop Angaelos, general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK, said the news is received with "deep sadness". "Once again we see innocent Christians murdered purely for refusing to renounce their faith".
He said the church remained committed to forgiving and praying for the perpetrators of this and other crimes. "We pray for these men and women, self-confessed religious people, that they may be reminded of the sacred and precious nature of every life created God."
Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of persecuted church advocacy, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said the organisation mourned with those who have lost loved ones and also prayed that the "perpetrators of these atrocities would recognise the sanctity of human life and the damage this and other acts of brutality cause to so many, including to their own humanity."
In Australia, the Australian Coptic Movement said the international community had met calls for action over the plight of Christians in Libya with a "deafening silence" and said such inaction in response to the "chaos" seen in Libya following the downfall of regime of former deceased dictator Muammar Gaddafi was "deeply regrettable".
"Since the ousting of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has rapidly descended into a state of anarchy with terrorist groups carrying out depraved acts of barbarism with impunity," the organisation said in a statement, noting that nations involved in the international coalition that intervened in Libya in 2011 had a "particular responsibility" to respond to the "unfolding crisis".
"This North African nation is on the path to becoming a failed state and there is no evidence that the international community has any resolve to put an end to the carnage which has come about as a result of the power vacuum left by the ouster of Colonel Gaddafi, despite attempts by the Egyptian Government to rally an international coalition to intervene in Libya following the devastating beheadings of Egyptian nationals earlier this year."
US-based organisation Coptic Solidarity has called on the UN Security Council to "follow its mandate and immediately act in protection of the innocent and vulnerable groups in the region".
– DAVID ADAMS
