Episode
Nuns killed in Algeria
- Podcast
- Witness History
- Published
- May 4, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 587
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct8r37
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Summary
In the early 1990s, Algeria was engulfed by a brutal civil conflict, as armed Islamist groups fought the state and civilians lived in fear. Foreigners were urged to leave, and many did. But Sister Lourdes Migueles, a Spanish Augustinian nun who had already spent decades serving in Algeria, chose to stay. As the violence worsened, religious figures also became targets. In October 1994, two of Sister Lourdes’s fellow nuns, Caridad Alvarez and Esther Paniagua, were shot dead near their convent as they returned from work. Sister Lourdes remembers hearing the gunshots, the panic in the street, and realising immediately that it was her fellow Sisters who had been attacked. Soon afterwards, she was ordered by her superiors to leave Algeria, something she says caused her deep pain, as though she had abandoned the country she loved. Years later, she returned to Algiers, where she still lives and works today, helping women and children. Sister Lourdes Migueles tells her story to Colm Flynn. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabi…