Published on: 9 November 2023
BACKGROUND SUMMARY
Dr. Kiflu Gebremeskel was the founder and senior pastor of Southwest Full Gospel Church and a member of the executive committee of the Full Gospel Church of Eritrea. The Full Gospel Church of Eritrea is one of the country’s largest Pentecostal networks which comprises about 150 house church groups.
Kiflu has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and served as a mathematics lecturer and a department head at the University of Asmara before changing careers in 1999.
In May of 2004, Kiflu and two other Christian leaders (Pastors Haile Naizghe and Tesfatsion Hagos) were arrested. At the time of their arrest, police confiscated the keys to their church offices and threatened their wives.
It is believed that Kiflu is being detained in the maximum-security Wengel Mermera Central Criminal Investigation and Interrogation Center. He has never been charged with a crime, no trial date has been set and he is not allowed visitors. He is, in effect, being indefinitely detained.
Kiflu is married and has four children. There have been reported sightings of him at various hospitals throughout the years, under tight security, for what is believed to be stress-related hypertension and diabetes.
**Latest update (November 2023): According to family, Dr. Kiflu is presently out of the hospital and his needs are being provided for by the local church and through the generous donations of Christians outside of Eritrea. His family asks that we pray for Dr. Kiflu’s health and safety as prison conditions are very bad.
TIMELINE
May 23, 2004: Arrested at 5 a.m. at his home in Asmara.
October 2001: Reported sightings at a hospital in order to receive medical treatment.
October 2023: Currently detained indefinitely. No trial date pending.
PRAYER NEEDS
Pray that Pastor Kiflu remains committed to the call of Christ on his life and that he will respond in love to the evil shown by hisaggressors. We know that God’s love will open doors for him to share the Gospel even in prison!
Ask God to comfort Pastor Kiflu’s family who has not received updates about their husband/father’s health and are not allowed to visit. We pray that the Lord protects his health and keeps him strong.
Pray that the Lord fill his wife’s and children’s hearts and minds with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.
TAKE ACTION – Write a letter
Please write directly to the persecuted believer at the below address: (view Sample Letters here)
Prisoner, Dr. Kiflu Gebremeskel
Wengel Mermera Prison
Asmara, Eritrea
Be sure to sign your letter with your first name only. (Please read our Prayer & Action Useful Tips to familiarize yourself with important safety measures when corresponding with persecuted Christians in foreign countries.)
Address the envelope as follows:
TAKE ACTION – Advocate on behalf of the prisoner
We have a strong advocate in the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in Washington D.C. Write to the USCIRF today and encourage their diplomatic efforts on behalf of Eritrean church leader Dr. Kiflu Gebremeskel and others like him who have been imprisoned in Eritrea for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ.
Send your letter to: (view Sample Letters here)
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom
Att: Chair Rabbi Abraham Cooper
732 N. Capitol Street, N.W., Suite A714,
Washington, D.C. 20401
