Release International is launching a powerful new book telling the story of gospel singer Helen Berhane, who was imprisoned in a shipping container in the East African state of Eritrea and brutally tortured for her faith.

Helen was detained for two years by the military junta in Eritrea, during which she was severely beaten and kept in a metal shipping container in the heat of the desert.

She and many other Christians who had been rounded up by the authorities were locked in the airless, unsanitary steel container, and left to bake in the desert by day and freeze by night.