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Middle East and North Africa

Russia calls for immediate release of nuns abducted in Syria’s Maaloula

12 novices with Abbess Balaji were captured by armed extremists after they carried out an attack on Monday at an ancient monastery in Maaloula

MOSCOW, December 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia has called for liberation of nuns abducted in Syria’s Christian village, Maaloula, north of Damascus, Russian Foreign Ministry’s envoy on human rights, democracy, and supremacy of law Konstantin Dolgov said on Wednesday.

“We call on those who kidnapped nuns to immediately free them safe and sound,” the diplomat wrote in his Twitter blog. “The abduction of nuns from the St. Thecla monastery in Syria’s west should be clearly and specifically condemned.

The representative of the Antiochian Patriarchate Metropolitan Luka Khoury said earlier that captured hostage nuns from the Syrian monastery were alive and in Yabrud.

12 novices with Abbess Balaji (Pelagea) were captured by armed extremists after they carried out an attack on Monday at an ancient monastery in Maaloula 55 km north of Damascus. The fate of the nuns was the focus of regional and world media.

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Middle East and North Africa

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