MUSLIM
HATE IN NIGERIA
At Least 95 Christians Slain in Nigeria's Benue,
Taraba StatesIn one week 48 lives were lost, among others since Oct. 22.
ABUJA,
Nigeria, December 9, 2024 (Christian Daily International-Morning Star
News) – Fulani herdsmen killed 48 Christians in central Nigeria’s Benue
state between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, sources said.
The gunmen killed 18 Christians, including women and children, who were
on their way to church services in Azege village, Logo County on Dec.
1, and 30 others were slain in Logo and Katsina-Ala counties on Nov.
24, area residents told Christian Daily International-Morning Star
News.
“The Fulani herdsmen, armed with deadly weapons, shot sporadically on
the Christians, butchered some victims with machetes, and destroyed
their crops on farmlands,” said Benjamin Uzenda, former member of the
Logo Local Government Council.
In Nigeria’s National Assembly, Sen. Emmanu¬el Udende of Benue state on
Dec. 5 lamented the killing of the 18 villagers on their way to church
“by suspected armed herdsmen.”
“These attacks perpetrated by herdsmen have continued unabated,
undermining security, peace and the socio-economic stability of the
affected communities,” Udende said, adding that since Oct. 22, herdsmen
have also ambushed and killed 15 people in Ayilamo, 25 in Anyiin and 6
in Uzer village.
“The continuous insecurity in these areas is in direct contravention of
the constitutional provision under section 14(2)(b) of the 1999
Constitution (as amended), which provides that the security and welfare
of the people shall be the primary purpose of government,” Udende said.
Senate Minority Leader Abba Moro, also representing Benue state in the
National Assembly, said during the discourse that the killings should
be investigated.
“When people come, kill and go away it calls for concerns, and I think
it should be properly investigated,” Moro said. “We need to understand
what is happening. We must get to the root of this matter, because I
don’t think it is as simple as we see it.”
Sen. Victor Umeh blamed the killings on herdsmen and expressed sadness over the inability of authorities to stop the bloodshed.
In the Nov. 24 killings, more than 300 armed Fulani herdsmen attacked
predominantly Christian communities in Logo and Katsina-Ala counties,
said community leader Joseph Anawah.
“They overwhelmingly attacked our people, shooting anyone in sight and
killing 30 Christians,” Anawah told Christian Daily
International-Morning Star News.
Clement Kav, chairman of the Logo Local Government Council, confirmed that 30 people died and added that 37 others were wounded.
Catherine Anene, spokesperson for the Benue State Police Command, told
Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, “It is true that there
have been attacks on some communities in Benue state, but know that the
police and other security agencies are doing all that is necessary in
order to end these attacks.”
Taraba Attacks
In neighboring Taraba state, gunmen broke into the homes of a pastor and a young woman and killed them, sources said.
In Jalingo, the state capital, the assailants shot their way into the
residence of Pastor Clement Anthony and the neighboring home of a
student, Titi Edward, the night of Dec. 6, officials said.
“A young woman studying for an upcoming examination was shot in her
room,” Usman Abdullahi, spokesman for the Taraba State Police Command,
said in a press statement. “She was reading in her room when they
opened fire on her, hitting her in the back. The bullet exited through
her stomach.”
The pastor was shot dead at his neighboring compound, he said.
“However, the gunmen did not kidnap any person or cart away money or
any valuable from the two compounds they attacked,” Abdullahi told
Sahara Reporters, raising speculation that the assailants were Islamic
extremists.
Dr. Aminu Jauro Hassan, chairman of the Jalingo Local Government
Council, who visited the families of the two victims, said they were
killed without provocation.
“Dr. Aminu Jauro Hassan, executive chairman of Jalingo Local Government
Council of Taraba State, has extended his condolences to the families
of the victims of the recent attack by gunmen at Kona Ward in Jalingo,
Taraba state,” reported a council press statement. “The attack, which
occurred on the night of Friday, 6 December, claimed the lives of Titi
Edward and Pastor Clement Anthony. A delegation comprising the leader
and deputy leader of the council, chief of staff to the executive
chairman, and other councilors, accompanied the council chairman during
the condolence visit. Dr. Hassan prayed for the departed souls to rest
in perfect peace, and said his condolence visit is a testament to his
commitment to supporting the community during difficult times.”
Taraba state has been under attack by herdsmen and other terrorists.
On Thursday (Dec. 5), two family members of Taraba state Gov. Kefas
Agbu, a Christian, were attacked. His mother, Jumai Kefas, and his
sister, Atsi Kefas, were shot and wounded in Wukari County as they
we’re commuting along Kente Road, according to Dauda Samaila Agbu,
chairman of the Wukari Local Government Council.
“Both mother and sister of the governor were shot and injured by
bandits,” Agbu said in a press statement. “The two women were injured
and were conveyed to Federal Teaching Hospital in Wukari, where they
were treated and referred to a medical facility in the city of Abuja
for further treatment. This attack on these women is disturbing and is
a continuation of the continued attack on our communities.”
Nigeria remained the deadliest place in the world to follow Christ,
with 4,118 people killed for their faith from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30,
2023, according to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) report. More
kidnappings of Christians than in any other country also took place in
Nigeria, with 3,300.
Nigeria was also the third highest country in number of attacks on
churches and other Christian buildings such as hospitals, schools, and
cemeteries, with 750, according to the report.
In the 2024 WWL of the countries where it is most difficult to be a
Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, as it was in the previous year.
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly
Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who
do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical
Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group
for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and
demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of
Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on
Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their
desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as
desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Over 15 Catholic parishes close amid ongoing violence against Christians in Nigeria
Jihadist Militia Murder Congregation of Believers, Stuff Local Wells with Corpses
August 11, 2024
Truth Nigeria
Leave Trail of 50 Dead in Benue State
By Mike Odeh James and Olikita Ekani
(Makurdi)
In the late hours of Thursday, August 8, 2024, the world was watching
the high drama of the Paris Olympics. American pundits were watching
Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago Presser.
But Akika Tsav, a farmer and resident of Ayati village in Central Nigeria, was watching his world fall apart.
Tsav’s
peaceful town of Ayati in Benue State, Nigeria, was again heading into
mourning. Ayati, a tranquil precinct in Ukum County, Benue State, has
been ravaged by wave after wave of jihadist terrorist attacks in recent
years. Located 121 miles northeast of Makurdi, the state capital, this
once-peaceful community has been grappling with traumatic loss, its
residents struggling to find security, food or even solace. The
cruelty they endured last week will remind many of the horrors of the
Rwandan genocide or even of the European Holocaust.
“It
was around 4:30 pm when I heard the sound of motorcycles approaching
our compound,” Tsav told Truthnigeria. “I was by the fireside,
preparing dinner for my two kids, when suddenly I heard the staccato of
automatic rifles. I knew that sound all too well, having heard it just
two weeks prior.”
Tsav
quickly sprang into action, gathering his two sons and hiding them in a
nearby ditch. From their hiding place, he witnessed the unimaginable
horror.
“I
counted up to 15 gunmen shooting indiscriminately into huts and at
people running for their lives. They shot point-blank at anyone they
saw, ensuring those shots were killed with a bullet to the head.”
Tsav’s
voice cracked as he described the slaughter of his family members. “I
watched in horror as my two brothers, my cousin, and her 8-month-old
baby were gunned down before my eyes. My mother, over 90 years old,
died of shock. The trauma of that day will haunt me forever.”
31 Killed, 40 Missing As Terrorists Attack Fishermen In Borno
Leadership
Written by Francis Okoye
May 28, 2024
No
fewer than 31 fishermen have been killed while 40 others have been
declared missing when suspected Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists launched a
deadly attack on Tunbun Rogo, a fishing village in Kukawa local
government area of Borno State, Tuesday night.
Confirming
the incident on Wednesday to LEADERSHIP in Maiduguri, the National
President Fish Dealers Association of Nigeria, Mohammed Laminu said the
sad news came as a shock to members of the association.
“We
are saddened by the killing of our fishermen by the terrorists in Baga.
Forty fisherman are still missing as of today. We called on the
government and Nigerian military to do more in protecting citizens
against attacks from the terrorists. The activities of the terrorists
is crippling our fishing business,” he said.
According
to an eyewitness who craved anonymity, the terrorists killed 31
fishermen, leaving many families awaiting news of their loved ones.
“The
corpses of the victims remain in the bush, while others who fled to
nearby bushes are gradually returning with wounds, receiving treatment
from a military base at Cross Kauwa.
“The
terrorists stormed the area, armed with weapons, and rounded the
fishermen before opening fire. The attack occurred after the fishermen
had been ordered by the military to vacate the area for a clearance
operation. Despite complying with the order, the terrorists targeted
them upon their return,” the eyewitness said.
The
source further said, “We were gathered by the terrorists, who claimed
they wanted to preach to us. Instead, their commander ordered our
execution. Thirty-one (31) fishermen were killed, and over 40 of us
managed to escape.
“One of the terrorists was punished by their commander for allowing some of us to flee.”
The victims were fishermen from Monguno, Doron Baga, Cross Kauwa, and Baga towns.
No
statement has been issued by the Nigerian military authorities or any
other security agency on the attack as at the time of filing this
report.
Baga
in Kukawa town was prior to the Boko Haram insurgency known for its
fish farming and production of sweet smoked fish that then used to
attract buyers from all parts of the country to Borno State.
Herdsmen Kill 28 Christians in Benue State, Nigeria
Dozens of others wounded, area sources say.
May 6, 2024
By Christian Daily International-Morning Star News -
ABUJA,
Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Fulani
herdsmen killed 28 Christians from April 20 to April 22 in an area of
Benue state, Nigeria, residents said.
“Some
groups of Muslim Fulanis have attacked three Christian villages in Gwer
West Local Government Area of Benue state,” said area resident Florence
Aaka, who said 28 Christians were killed.
Henry
Agba, chairman of the Gwer West Local Government Council, said armed
herdsmen killed the Christians in Mbabwande village, Gyaluwa village
and a community along Naka/Adoka Road.
“These
attacks started on Saturday, April 20, when six of the Christian
victims were ambushed by the herdsmen at Mbabwande village, where they
had gone for the burial of a Christian who died in the area,” Agba told
Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Herdsmen
killed 14 Christians at Gyaluwa on April 21 at about 11 p.m., he said,
adding that the next day, they attacked the Christian community along
Naka/Adoka Road.
“So
far, Christian villagers have recovered the 28 corpses of Christians
killed during these attacks,” Agba said. “Furthermore, dozens of other
Christians were wounded and are currently receiving treatment in some
hospitals.”
The
assailants have also kidnapped several people in the Gwer area, he
said. Six Christians kidnapped near the Naka Highway on Tuesday (April
30), including one identified as Matthew Chile, his wife and four
siblings, were released on Sunday (May 5) after relatives paid a
ransom, said Victor Torsar Ormin, a former member of Nigeria’s National
Assembly.
“[Chile’s]
captors, who are Fulani herdsmen who had demanded a ransom of 50
million naira [US$36,150], released him at about 8 p.m.,” Ormin said in
a press statement.
Tse
Vanger, a spokesman for Chile’s employer, Benue State University,
Makurdi, had confirmed the kidnappings, saying the six Christians were
ambushed and abducted from a Toyota Corolla near Naka town.
Police
spokesperson Catherine Anene said investigations in the Gwer raids were
underway and security agents had been deployed to the areas.
Benue
Gov. Hyacinth Alia condemned the attacks, saying they were carried out
by “herdsmen who maim and kill innocent citizens in cold blood and for
unfounded reasons. We cannot watch our people killed daily on their
farmlands and their villages for a cause very unknown to us.”
Nigeria
remained the deadliest place in the world to follow Christ, with 4,118
people killed for their faith from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023,
according to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) report. More
kidnappings of Christians than in any other country also took place in
Nigeria, with 3,300.
Nigeria
was also the third highest country in number of attacks on churches and
other Christian buildings such as hospitals, schools, and cemeteries,
with 750, according to the report.
In
the 2024 WWL of the countries where it is most difficult to be a
Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, as it was in the previous year.
Numbering
in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim
Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not
hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist
ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for
International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They
adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a
clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian
identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian
leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian
communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to
forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as
desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Mother, Baby among Christians Slain in Plateau State, Nigeria
More than 30 killed in Fulani raids.
April 25, 2024
By Christian Daily International-Morning Star News
ABUJA,
Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A single
bullet killed a young mother and the baby strapped to her back, two of
the more than 30 Christians killed in Plateau state, Nigeria in the
past two weeks, sources said.
In
predominantly Christian Kopnanle village, Bokkos County, more than 50
Fulani herdsmen on April 12 attacked unarmed residents, said community
leader Farmasum Fuddang.
“The
victims include a 12-month-old girl, Peret Sylvanus, who was brutally
killed by the same bullet that killed her mother, Mwanret Sylvanus,”
Fuddang said in a press statement. “The bullet pierced through Mrs.
Sylvanus’ stomach and hit little Peret, who was strapped to her back,
killing both of them instantly.”
They
were among 10 Christians killed in the village, he said. The assailants
slaughtered about 20 other Christians in Mandung-Mushu and surrounding
communities, said Fuddang, an attorney.
“Under
the cover of darkness, more than 50 armed Fulani terrorists descended
upon the villages of Mandung-Mushu and Kopnanle, targeting innocent,
unarmed, and peaceful Christian residents as they slept,” he said.
After
the April 12 assaults on Mandung-Mushu village and Kopnanle in Tangur
District, the assailants attacked Kopyal village the following day,
killing five Christians, Fuddang said.
“The
herdsmen carried out these attacks against Christians unchallenged,” he
said. “They also attacked Manduk and Njukudel Christian communities,
where they injured one Christian, and then proceeded to attack
Mandarken village before moving also to Nghahtigut village, where they
killed two Christians.”
The attacks also extended to the predominantly Christian communities of Josho village in Daffo District, he said.
“The
herdsmen set fire to homes and a place of worship, a church worship
building, mercilessly gunning down fleeing Christians while nearby
soldiers failed to intervene effectively,” Fuddang said. “These brazen
attacks, which predominantly targeted Christians, including women and
children, appear to be part of a calculated effort to instill fear and
perpetrate further displacement within our communities.”
Fuddang
added that in spite of Nigerian authorities “acknowledging that the
Fulani were responsible for the six-day attack that claimed the lives
of over 300 Christians last Christmas Eve, no effort has been made by
Nigeria government to curtail these attacks.”
On
Thursday (April 18) in Chikam, another predominantly Christian village,
gunmen killed several people, including Christian second-year
university student Dading James Jordan, said Yakubu Ayuba, registrar at
Plateau State University, Bokkos, in a press statement.
“Gunmen
on the night of Thursday, April 18, attacked Chikam, a neighboring
Christian community to Plateau State University, Bokkos, killing one of
our students, Dading Jordan, a 200-level student and a Christian,”
Ayuba said. “In view of this sad development, management has declared a
two-day mourning, from Friday, April 19, to Saturday, April 20.”
Ayuba urged officials to increase security around the university in order to secure staff members and students.
Regarding
the April 12 attacks, area resident Isaac Makut also stated that
“Fulani Muslim militias” killed about 30 Christians in the villages.
In
February also in Bokkos County, Fulani herdsmen killed a Christian and
kidnapped his wife, said Mai Katako village resident Kefas Mallau. Sule
Gwamnati was slain on Feb. 16, and his wife Blessing Gwamnati was
kidnapped from Mai Katako.
“In
the early hours of Friday, Feb. 16, a Christian by the name of Sule
Gwamnati of Mai Katako village was shot twice by armed herdsmen, who
also kidnapped his wife, Blessing Sule,” said Mallau, a community
leader, in a text message to Christian Daily International-Morning Star
News. “The victim, Sule Gwamnati, later died at the Jos University
Teaching Hospital after treatment had commenced.”
Luther Dafwang, brother of Blessing Gwamnati, said the couple were members of the Assembly of God Church.
“Sule Gwamnati died, but we can’t trace the whereabouts of his wife,” Dafwang said. “Please, help us pray.”
Nigeria
remained the deadliest place in the world to follow Christ, with 4,118
people killed for their faith from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023,
according to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) report. More
kidnappings of Christians than in any other country also took place in
Nigeria, with 3,300.
Nigeria
was also the third highest country in number of attacks on churches and
other Christian buildings such as hospitals, schools, and cemeteries,
with 750, according to the report.
In
the 2024 WWL of the countries where it is most difficult to be a
Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, as it was in the previous year.
Numbering
in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim
Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not
hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist
ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for
International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They
adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a
clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian
identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian
leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian
communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to
forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as
desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
Terrorists Slaughter 41 Christians in Kaduna State, Nigeria
Many others kidnapped.
By Christian Daily International-Morning Star News
ABUJA,
Nigeria, January 8, 2024 (Christian Daily International-Morning Star
News) – Suspected Fulani terrorists on Wednesday (Jan. 3) killed 41
Christians and kidnapped many others in two counties of southern Kaduna
state, Nigeria, sources said.
The assailants in the early morning attacked Dokan Karji, Ungwan Sako
and Kunkurai villages in the Dawaki area of Kauru County and Gefe
village in Kajuru County, area resident Sunday Isuwa said.
“The attacks in Kauru claimed the lives of 17 Christians, and those in
Kajuru claimed the lives of 24 Christians,” Isuwa told Morning Star
News in a text message.
Another resident, Samaila Musa, said in a text message, “The terrorists
who were armed with deadly weapons invaded the communities, killing
children, women, men and the elderly who were unable to escape from the
attackers.”
The Rev. Joseph John Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State Chapter, said in a press statement on
Friday (Jan. 5) that the attacks were “the handiwork of evil bandits
and terrorists who have been attacking our communities without
relenting.”
“We are appealing to the governor of Kaduna state and Nigeria’s
security agencies not to relent but ensure that these evil-doers are
brought to face the wrath of the laws of our country,” Hayab said.
Police confirmed the attacks and said officers were making efforts to curtail them.
A former Dawaki Ward council member, Aminu Khalid, told Nigerian news
outlet Punch that the assailants entered the communities on foot and
took up vantage positions.
“The terrorists always come from parts of Kajuru and Kachia forest,
where their camp is,” Khalid told Punch. “The camp is situated at
Dutsen Magunguna, in Kajuru Local Government Area of the state.”
The Nigerian military has raided the terrorist camp, but nearby communities never experience peace, he added.
Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith in 2022,
with 5,014, according to Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List (WWL)
report. It also led the world in Christians abducted (4,726), sexually
assaulted or harassed, forcibly married or physically or mentally
abused, and it had the most homes and businesses attacked for
faith-based reasons. As in the previous year, Nigeria had the second
most church attacks and internally displaced people.
In the 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most
difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to sixth place, its highest
ranking ever, from No. 7 the previous year.
“Militants from the Fulani, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa
Province (ISWAP) and others conduct raids on Christian communities,
killing, maiming, raping and kidnapping for ransom or sexual slavery,”
the WWL report noted. “This year has also seen this violence spill over
into the Christian-majority south of the nation… Nigeria’s government
continues to deny this is religious persecution, so violations of
Christians’ rights are carried out with impunity.”
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly
Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who
do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical
Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group
for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and
demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of
Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on
Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their
desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as
desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
A Christmas Muslim Genocide in Nigeria
JAN 3, 2024 11:00 AM BY DANIEL GREENFIELD
4,500 Christians killed in 2023. 52,000 in over a decade
Muslims
celebrated Christmas in Nigeria by massacring around 100 Christians
across a dozen communities. The Jihadis hacked Christians to death with
machetes and burned down churches as part of a genocidal campaign that
has killed 52,000 Christians in over a decade and forced millions to
leave their home and become refugees in the African nation.
In America, not a single person marched, rallied or protested over this actual genocide.
The
rampaging mobs crying that Hamas is suffering genocide remained silent.
Black Lives Matter had nothing to say about it and neither did any of
the politicians and social media influencers who spend all of their
time pushing fake casualty numbers out of Gaza.
According
to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
(Intersociety), a local NGO, over 4,500 Christians were killed this
year in Nigeria. Unlike Israel’s defensive war against Hamas, this
latest year of the ongoing Muslim genocide has resulted in no UN
Security Council sessions or UN General Assembly votes. And the media
has kept the killing off its front pages.
Every
human rights organization that shouts “genocide” whenever a Hamas
terrorist dies has yet to declare genocide over the killing of over
50,000 civilians by Muslim gangs aided and abetted by the Muslim rulers
who have taken over Nigeria and waged war on Christians.
Earlier
this year, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the ‘Godfather of Lagos’ educated in
Chicago and once accused of ties to heroin trafficking, named “leader
of warriors” by the Emir of Borgu, took power earlier this year,
replacing the brutal regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, a former
dictator backed by the Obama administration to usurp former Christian
President Jonathan Goodluck.
Intersociety
described the massacre of 700 Christians earlier this year as a
“farewell gift” to outgoing President Muhamadu Buhari warning that 100
churches had been destroyed by Islamic Jihadists in just 60 days. Every
time a terror mosque is bombed in Gaza, it’s in the headlines, but how
is it possible that 100 churches being destroyed in mere months isn’t
news?
Intersociety
began its count of the over 50,000 murdered Christians in 2009. That’s
no coincidence. As part of the ‘Arab Spring’, the Obama administration
had set out to ‘flip’ Middle Eastern countries from secular to Islamic
rule, but in a less well known move, had also begun flipping African
countries from non-Muslim to Muslim rule, resulting in the massacre of
Christians. There is more Christian blood on Obama’s hands than anyone
in a long time.
The
Obama administration staged a Muslim coup in Côte d’Ivoire leading to a
civil war in which it indirectly intervened in favor of Alassane
Ouattara who has remained in power since 2010. In Kenya, Obama backed
efforts by his cousin, Raila Odinga, who like Obama claimed to be
Christian, but had developed close ties to the country’s Islamic
population and ran as their champion, to take power. And in Nigeria,
Obama had pressured the government to stop fighting Islamic terrorism.
The end result of these efforts was a horrifying wave of Boko Haram
terror.
Boko
Haram, an Islamic Jihadist group dedicated to enforcing Islamic law,
amped up the violence while the Obama administration insisted that the
Nigerian military should avoid going after the terrorists and instead
pumped a fortune in foreign aid to deal with “social inequities”.
The
money instead helped finance a genocidal wave of Islamic violence, much
as it had in Gaza and Iran, but the Obama administration and its
leftist allies went on lying about the genocide. The official position
was that Muslims were killing Christians in response to oppression. If
only they had better economic prospects and more political power, the
violence would stop.
The
Obama administration refused to add Boko Haram to the list of Foreign
Terrorist Organizations which allowed the Jihadists to benefit from
money coming out of the United States until mounting political pressure
from Republicans forced it to do the right thing. But not until
thousands had been killed while Obama officials falsely claimed that
Boko Haram was not an Islamic terrorist group and that FTO designation
would only alienate Nigerian Muslims.
In
2021, the New York Times published an op-ed claiming that, “there is no
proof that a well-organized, ideologically coherent terrorist group
called Boko Haram even exists today.” But by 2014, Boko Haram’s mass
kidnapping of hundreds of Christian girls led to the #BringBackOurGirls
campaign. The efforts to deny that an Islamic terrorist group inspired,
trained and financed by Al Qaeda, which had killed thousands, even
existed, ended.
But the motives behind the lies that enabled the Christian genocide remained the same.
Obama
got what he wanted with Muhammadu Buhari, but after two terms of the
former Muslim dictator, the killing goes on. Boko Haram, an Al Qaeda
ally, has gotten bogged down in fighting a local splinter group
affiliated with ISIS, for the bragging rights to Christian genocide.
And ordinary Fulani Muslim tribesmen and gangs have taken over
campaigns of butchery like those that occurred over Christmas. And some
Nigerian Christians say that the atrocities of these ordinary Fulani
Muslims are even worse than those practiced by Boko Haram.
“The
disembowelling of pregnant women and the butchering of the fetus is a
specialty of theirs,” the rector of a Nigerian seminary described.
Obama
officials claimed that the real issue wasn’t Muslim terrorism but
Muslim oppression. A decade later as Fulani Muslims have gone on
massacring Christians, the story hasn’t changed even as the massacres
continued under the regime of Buhari: a fellow Fulani Muslim.
Instead
of addressing the Fulani Muslim genocide of Christians, human rights
organizations and the media have claimed that members of the Fulani
ethnic group are the ones facing “persecution” in Nigeria and elsewhere
in the region for their Jihadist tendencies.
The
massacre of Christians in Nigeria, like Oct 7 and Islamic terrorism
around the world from India to America is part of a thousand year
Islamic genocide of non-Muslims commanded by the Koran. Every time
their victims fight back, the Islamists and their allies cry
“genocide”, but the true genocide is the one that has claimed countless
millions across every religious group in every part of the world. It is
a thousand year genocide that the world must fight back against.
Muslim terrorists are not the victims of genocide, they are its perpetrators.
We
must stand with the Christian victims of Islamic genocide in Nigeria,
with the Jewish victims of genocide in Israel, the Hindu victims of
genocide in Kashmir, the Buddhist victims of genocide in Myanmar and
with the atheists being murdered in Bangladesh.
If we do not, the final genocide will be our own.
Fulani
Herdsmen Kill 36 Christians in Kaduna State, Nigeria
Anglican
bishop laments government inaction.
Morning Star
News
August 30,
2021
Fulani
herdsmen killed 36 Christians in multiple attacks in Kaduna state, Nigeria this
month with impunity, while a church leader complained that authorities arrested
only Christians for defending themselves.
The attacks
from Aug. 4 to Saturday (Aug. 28) on Zangon Kataf, Kaura and Chikun counties took the lives of 17 Christians in Doh (Mado) village, five in Madamai,
eight in Buruku and Udawa,
three in Machun and three in Goran Gida, residents
said.
The attack on Machun village, Zangon Kataf County, on Thursday (Aug. 26) took place at 7 p.m.,
said area resident Judith David in a text message to Morning Star News.
“Fulani
herdsmen have killed three of our Christians, and five other Christians were
also injured,” she said. “It rained at the time the herdsmen invaded our
village. We all had already gone to houses to sleep when the herdsmen attacked
the village, forcing us to flee into the bush in the rain.”
Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna state commissioner for Internal Security and
Home Affairs, confirmed the killings in a press statement.
“Police
personnel responded to a distress call from Machun
village and mobilized there,” he said. “On arrival, they were also alerted by
gunshots from neighboring Manuka. As the assailants fled the area, the
operatives found the corpses of three victims.”
The Rev. Jacob
Kwashi, Anglican bishop of Zonkwa
Diocese, and residents of the affected communities said the assailants were
Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
In Doh (Mado) village, Zangon Kataf county on Aug. 22, sources reported 17 Christians
were killed.
“My hometown
of Doh (Mado) is under attack from Fulani herdsmen,”
village resident Patience Bilyock said a text message
to Morning Star News. “O God, arise and fight for your children.”
Kwashi, while conducting a funeral service for the
17 Christians killed in the village, said the government was doing nothing as
killings continued each day in Middle Belt states.
“We have never
seen an evil government in this country like the one of today. The government
is fully in support of the bloodshed in Nigeria. We are being killed just
because we are not Muslims,” Kwashi said. “These evil
Fulani jihadists are enjoying the backing of the government to go about killing
people, destroying their houses and farmlands, yet when we try to defend
ourselves, the government will go about arresting our people. What kind of
justice is this?”
Aruwan, the Kaduna state spokesman, said of the
attack on Doh village that the assailants fled on sighting the forces of the
Nigerian army. He identified nine of the dead residents as Moses Dangana, Mary Dangana, Jummai Dangana, Jerry James,
Happy James, Endurance Stephen, Comfort Emmanuel, Jummai
Tanko and Mary Clement.
“One resident,
Magdalene Dangoma, sustained gunshot injuries and is
receiving treatment in a hospital,” Aruwan said. “Two
houses were razed in the attack. The troops of Operation Safe Haven also
rescued 12 persons who were fleeing from the attackers. Those rescued are
Patrick Chindon, Joseph Agbon,
Polymer Joseph, Amos Francis, Keziah Amos, Linda Jonathan, Asabe
Jonathan, Jonathan James, Lamin Yohanna,
Titi Emmanuel, Patricia Michael and Jetral Bala.”
On Aug. 16,
herdsmen attacked Goran Gida village, also in Zangon Kataf county. Aruwan said three
residents were killed: Amos Bulus, Bulus Swam and Simon Akut. A
resident identified only as Kezia was wounded, and
the assailants set a car on fire, he said.
In Madamai village, Kaura County,
herdsmen attacked on Aug. 15 at 5 a.m., said area resident Polycarp Bala.
“Five
Christians were killed in this attack by Fulani herdsmen,” Bala
said.
Aruwan identified those killed as Janet Yakubu,
Gambo Yakubu, Jonathan Adamu, Mrs. Monday and
Humphrey Barnabas.
In Buruku and Udawa villages
in Chikun County on Aug. 13, herdsmen killed eight
Christians as they worked on their farms, residents said. Five Christian
farmers were killed in Buruku village and three in Udawa village, area resident John Audu
said.
“We are tired
of the blood being shed on a daily basis here,” Audu
said. “We need help.”
On Aug. in Magamiya village, armed herdsmen wounded one Christian.
“Christian by
the name of Shedrach Yohanna
was shot by the Fulani Herdsmen on his arm,” Maigamiya
resident Jude Hassan said in a text message. Aruwan
confirmed the attack and injury.
“Troops
responded to a distress call, mobilized to the village and engaged the
assailants and successfully repelled them,” Aruwan
said.
Nigeria was the
country with the most Christians killed for their faith last year (November
2019-October 2020), at 3,530, up from 1,350 in 2019, according to Open Doors’
2021 World Watch List. In overall violence, Nigeria was second only to
Pakistan, and it trailed only China in the number of churches attacked or
closed, 270, according to the list.
In this year’s
World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian,
Nigeria broke into the top 10 for the first time, jumping to No. 9 from No. 12 the
previous year.
Numbering in
the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise
hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views,
but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s
All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted
in a recent report.
“They adopt a
comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa
Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent
symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian
leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian
communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully
take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it
difficult for them to sustain their herds.
The APPG
report noted that tribal loyalties cannot be overlooked.
“In 2015,
Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, was elected president of Nigeria,” the group
reported. “He has done virtually nothing to address the behavior of his fellow
tribesmen in the Middle Belt and in the south of the country.”
The U.S. State
Department on Dec. 7 added Nigeria to its list of Countries of Particular
Concern for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious
violations of religious freedom.” Nigeria joined Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran,
North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the list.
In a more
recent category of non-state actors, the State Department also designated
ISWAP, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis,
ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Taliban as “Entities of Particular
Concern.”
On Dec. 10 the
prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, issued a statement calling for investigation into
crimes against humanity in Nigeria.
Nigeria: 140 more Christian children kidnapped
Jul 6th, 2021
Source: Release International
As gunmen kidnap more than 140 Christian schoolchildren
in Nigeria, Release International is again urging the international community
to call Nigeria to account over its appalling failure to protect its Christian
minority in the north.
The gunmen, suspected to be Fulani militants,
overcame security guards and forced their way into Bethel Baptist boarding
school in Kaduna at 2am on Monday morning. They kidnapped most of 180 students
who attend the school. A few managed to escape, according to reports.
The exact numbers of high school students abducted
is still unknown. Estimates vary from 140 to 164.
News agency AFP says this is the fourth mass
school kidnapping in Kaduna state since December. It's estimated that more
Christians are kidnapped in Nigeria than any other country in the world.
"Our hearts and prayers go out for these
kidnapped children and their parents. God knows what they are going
through," says Paul Robinson, CEO of UK-based Release International, which
supports persecuted Christians around the world.
"This appalling failure by Nigeria to
protect its Christian citizens has to stop. The international community must
compel Nigeria to effective action to protect its vulnerable Christian minority
in the North against attacks from extremists."
The Nigerian government has blamed bandits for
the growing numbers of kidnappings and attacks against its Christian
population. But international observers recognise a
religious dimension behind many of the attacks.
The most likely perpetrators are Fulani
herdsmen, whose grazing land is being eroded by desertification.
"If so, by attacking Christians, they are
following in the footsteps of Islamist militants, including Boko Haram and
ISWAP (Islamic State West African Province)," says Paul Robinsonl.
The declared aim of Boko Haram is to turn Nigeria
into an Islamic state. It has ordered its supporters to kill Christians.
"By attacking Christians in the north and
middle belts of Nigeria, the Fulani militants are serving the same jihadist
agenda as these Islamist terror groups. And the Nigerian government is simply
not doing enough to protect its Christian citizens who are under attack.
Pressure must be brought to bear on Nigeria from the international
community." Robinson added.
Three recent reports confirm the growing spread
of violence against Christians in Nigeria.
According to the Nigerian NGO Intersociety, in
the four months from January to April 2021 Nigeria 'lost no fewer than 1,470
Christians… the highest number recorded since 2014'.
And separate reports by the US State Department
and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
singled out Nigeria as a 'country of particular concern for tolerating severe
violations of religious freedom'.
According to Intersociety, 2,200 Nigerian
Christians were abducted between January and April this year. Of those 220 are
believed to have been murdered. Intersociety say Fulani militants killed more
than 800 Christians, in a conflict often simplistically characterised
as clashes over resources between herders and farmers.
According to the UK All-Party Parliamentary
Group for International Freedom or Belief there is a religious dimension behind
the growing violence against Christians in the North and Middle Belts of
Nigeria. It says Fulani militants have adopted 'a comparable strategy to Boko
Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province], and demonstrated a clear
intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity.'
That religious dimension is reiterated in the
2021 Annual Report of the USCIRF. It notes that Boko Haram fighters beheaded
the local chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Adamawa
State because he refused to renounce his faith, while ISWAP fighters executed five
aid workers as a warning to "all those being used by infidels to convert
Muslims to Christianity".
And in a separate report, the US State
Department cites Nigerian Minister of Culture Lai Mohammed, who declared Boko
Haram and ISIS fighters 'have started targeting Christians and Christian
villages... to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos.'
The US State Department also quotes the
president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, who warns Fulani militants and others share 'a
goal to Islamise Nigeria'.
Release International is concerned about
attempts to simplify and reduce the causes of conflict to little more than a
tussle over resources.
"To characterise
this as just a farmer/herder conflict is a gross over-simplification,"
says Paul Robinson.
"Boko Haram has publicly called for the
killing of Christians and stated its aim to Islamie
the whole of Nigeria. Fulani militants are now killing more Christians than
Boko Haram fighters. In so doing, they appear to be serving the same Islamist
agenda.
"This has been going on for far too long.
How many more innocent men, women and children need to suffer before something
is done? The world must wake up to what is happening in the most populous
nation in Africa."
Release International is active in some 25
countries around the world, supporting pastors, Christian prisoners and their
families; supplying Christian literature and Bibles, and working for justice.
Herdsmen
Attacks Kill 37 Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria
Pastor says
terrorists roam freely in presence of security personnel.
May 26,
2021
JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen on Sunday (May 23) killed 14 Christians in a village
near Jos, Plateau state and eight others in another village, sources said.
Herdsmen
attacked Kwi village, Riyom
County, near Jos, at about 11 p.m., said area resident Solomon Mandiks, a Christian rights activist.
“Fourteen
Christians were butchered to death, including children,” Mandiks
told Morning Star News in a text message. “Eight members of one family have all
been killed. This is beside an additional six other Christians killed by the
herdsmen in the village.”
Earlier that
night in Dong village, Jos North County, armed herdsmen attacking at 8 p.m.
killed eight Christians, area residents said. Asabe
Samuel, 60-year-old member of the local Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA)
congregation, said in an interview at her home that a large number of herdsmen
invaded as residents were about to go to sleep.
“I was by the
central area of the village, which has shops and serves as a market, when I
heard Fulani gunmen shooting around my house,” Samuel told Morning Star News.
“This forced us to run to hide.”
As the sounds
of gunshot were coming from the direction of her house, others advised her not
to return home, she said.
“I still
rushed to my house, and just as I was getting closer to my house, I found that
one Istifanus Shehu, 40, a member of COCIN [Church of
Christ in Nations] who has had mental health challenges, was shot dead, and his
corpse was lying beside my house,” Samuel said. “We heard the attackers
retreating and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar [Allah is greater].’ The herdsmen
were also communicating with themselves in the Fulani language.”
After they
retreated, residents found eight Christians were killed in attacks on four
houses, she said. Besides Shehu, she identified those slain as Ruth Adamu, 20, an ECWA member; Naomi Adamu,
40, of the ECWA; Friday Danladi Riya, 22, of the ECWA; Awuki
Matthew, 28, Catholic; Gospel Matthew, 4, Catholic; PraiseGod
Matthew, 2, Catholic; and one identified only as Chinyere of St. Jude’s Anglican Church.
“Awuki Matthew was killed alongside her two daughters,
Gospel Matthew and PraiseGod Matthew, leaving behind
her husband, who’s blind,” she said. “Who will care for this blind man, and how
will he cope with life without his wife and children?”
Monday Auta, an ECWA member and her neighbor, was shot in his
shoulder and was receiving hospital treatment, she said, adding that Ruth Adamu and daughter Naomi Adamu
were her neighbors and members of her ECWA church.
The late
Shehu’s sister, Jummai Shehu, a 32-year-old COCIN
member, said her brother was visiting the house of Samuel, where they once
lived.
“The armed
Fulani herdsmen spotted him and shot him dead,” she said, weeping. “I feel very
sad about the way my brother was killed in cold blood. Why must we live in fear
every day, not knowing the evil that awaits us as Christians in this country?”
The pastor of the
ECWA church in Dong, Jonathan Kyoomnom Bala, said police did not show up until 10 a.m. the next
day.
“Some
government officials came also this morning only at 10 a.m.,” Pastor Bala told Morning Star News. “These herdsmen carried out
the attack on us for about 40 minutes and left without intervention from
soldiers or the police.”
Security
agencies’ lack of action was concerning, he said.
“While the
attack was going on, I phoned one of the security agents, and he told me
they were doing something about it, but they did nothing,” Pastor Bala said. “It’s traumatic to witness such deadly incidents
of this nature.
“Last week the
herdsmen were here in the community roaming around without restraint by
security agents stationed around the community, and yet, even in the presence
of soldiers and police personnel, the attackers invaded the community and
embarked on a killing spree. And some of the attackers are known to be
terrorists who have been brought in from other countries to collaborate with
the herdsmen to attack Christians.”
As a pastor,
he said, he has wondered why the violence goes unchecked.
“Throughout
last night I couldn’t sleep because members I minister to were killed in
gruesome manner, and for not committing any crimes except being Christians,”
Pastor Bala told Morning Star News. “Has it now
become a crime to profess Jesus Christ?”
Many
Christians have been displaced as a result of this attack, adversely affecting
ministry there, he said.
“What the
Nigerian government should note is that when the people have lost faith in
security agencies and are forced to resort to self-help to defend themselves,
there’ll be anarchy in the land,” he said.
The pastor
listed churches affected by herdsmen attacks in the area as the ECWA, COCIN,
Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, Baptist Church, Assemblies of God Church,
Living Faith Church, and The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
April Attacks
Prior attacks
in Plateau state in April took the lives of at least 15 other Christians.
Herdsmen on
April 30 attacked Ta-Hoss village, Riyom County,
killing Emmanuel Joshua, a 32-year-old Christian, rights advocate Mandiks said.
Irmiya James, a leader of the Christian community
in the village, told Mandiks that he received a
distress call at 3 p.m. that Fulani had shot dead a Christian on Tahoss-Ganawuri Road.
“On getting to
the scene, we found Mr. Emmanuel Joshua in a pool of blood, and his motorcycle
was taken away by the Fulani assailants,” James told Mandiks.
Fulani militia
on April 30 attacked Sopp village, Riyom County, wounding seven people while hundreds of
people already displaced from Kak village in 2012
were forced to flee again from their camp for Internally Displaced Persons, Mandiks said.
Joshua Choji, a Christian receiving treatment at Vom Christian Hospital, told Mandiks
that he and others went to clear farmlands when 50 Fulani herdsmen emerged from
a nearby stream.
“All I can
remember is that four of the herdsmen attacked me, while others also attacked
other members of our community,” Choji told Mandiks. “We cried out for help, but none came for our
rescue. I was battered on my head and also sustained a fracture on my left
hand.”
Other
Christians injured were John Makama, Danladi Dazam, Chuwang Kara, Alpha Yakubu,
Daniel Danbwarang and Ibrahim Jatau,
Mandiks said.
In
predominantly Christian Baten village, Riyom County, herdsmen attacked on April 25 at about 8
p.m., said area resident Pam Choji.
“We had
received information that Fulani militias would be coming to invade our
village, Baten,” Choji
said. “That made us intensify vigilance and, graciously, no one was hurt when
the armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked us.”
Choji said the half-hour attack forced area
residents to flee their homes.
In Wereng village, Riyom County,
herdsmen attacked on April 15, killing six Christians and sending two others
for hospital treatment, said Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, director of the Emancipation Centre for Crisis
Victims in Nigeria (ECCVN). He identified those slain as Chuwang
Williams, 29; Bulus Danbom,
41; Peter Williams, 39; Dung Gyang, 60; Dachung Gara, 44; and Davou Dachung, 45. Injured were Davou Jatau and Gyang Jatau.
Residents in
nearby Kuru village, Jos South County, said herdsmen attacked on April 9,
killing eight Christians.
Nigeria was
the country with the most Christians killed for their faith last year (November
2019-October 2020), at 3,530, up from 1,350 in 2019, according to Open Doors’
2021 World Watch List report. In overall violence, Nigeria was second only to
Pakistan, and it trailed only China in the number of churches attacked or
closed, 270, according to the list.
Nigeria led
the world in number of kidnapped Christians last year with 990. In this year’s
World Watch List list of the countries where it is
most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria broke into the top 10 for the first
time, jumping to No. 9 from No. 12 the previous year.
Numbering in
the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise
hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views,
but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s
All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted
in a recent report.
“They adopt a
comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa
Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent
symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian
leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian
communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully
take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it
difficult for them to sustain their herds.
The APPG
report noted that tribal loyalties cannot be overlooked.
“In 2015, Muhammadu
Buhari, a Fulani, was elected president of Nigeria,” the group reported. “He
has done virtually nothing to address the behavior of his fellow tribesmen in
the Middle Belt and in the south of the country.”
The U.S. State
Department on Dec. 7 added Nigeria to its list of Countries of Particular
Concern for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious
violations of religious freedom.” Nigeria joined Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran,
North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the list.
In a more
recent category of non-state actors, the State Department also designated
ISWAP, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis,
ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Taliban as “Entities of Particular
Concern.”
On Dec. 10 the
prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, issued a statement calling for investigation into
crimes against humanity in Nigeria.
Boko Haram Kills at Least 43 Farmworkers in
Nigeria, Militia Says
By Agence
France-Presse
November 28, 2020
MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA - Boko Haram fighters killed
at least 43 farmworkers and injured six in rice fields near the northeast
Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Saturday, anti-jihadist militia told AFP.
The assailants tied up the agricultural workers
and slit their throats in the village of Koshobe, the
militia said.
"We have recovered 43 dead bodies, all of
them slaughtered, along with six others with serious injuries," said
militia leader Babakura Kolo,
who helped the survivors.
"It is no doubt the handiwork of Boko
Haram, who operate in the area and frequently attack farmers."
The victims were laborers from Sokoto state in
northwest Nigeria, roughly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away, who had traveled
to the northeast to find work, said Ibrahim Liman, another militiaman who gave
the same toll.
"There were 60 farmers who were contracted
to harvest ... the rice fields. Forty-three were slaughtered, with six
injured," Liman said.
Eight others were missing, presumed to have
been kidnapped by the jihadists, he said.
The bodies were taken to Zabarmari
village, two kilometers away, where they would be kept ahead of burial Sunday,
said resident Mala Bunu, who took part in the
search-and-rescue operation.
Last month, Boko Haram militants slaughtered 22
farmers working in their irrigation fields near Maiduguri in two separate
incidents.
Boko Haram and ISWAP, its
IS-linked rival, have increasingly targeted loggers, herders and fishermen in
their violent campaign, accusing them of spying and passing information to the
military and the local militia fighting them.
At least 36,000 people have been killed in the
jihadist conflict, which has displaced around 2 million people since 2009.
The violence has also spread into neighboring
Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the
militants.
The attack took place as voters went to the
polls in local elections in Borno State.
The elections had been repeatedly postponed
because of an increase in attacks by Boko Haram and ISWAP.
Boko Haram
kills at least 110 civilians in this year’s 'most violent direct' attack
Christian
Post
NOVEMBER 30,
2020
Armed men on
motorcycles, believed to be from the Boko Haram terrorist group, killed at
least 110 farmworkers in rice fields in Nigeria’s conflict-hit Borno state. A United Nations official called it “the most
violent direct attack against innocent civilians this year.”
“I am outraged
and horrified by the gruesome attack against civilians,” Edward Kallon, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in
Nigeria, said about the assault in the village of Koshobe
and other rural communities near the northeast city of Maiduguri on
Saturday, according to
Bloomberg.
“At least 110
civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others were wounded in this attack,”
the official said.
Kallon feared that several women may have been
kidnapped.
“I call for
the perpetrators of this heinous and senseless act to be brought to justice,”
he added.
Boko Haram and
its faction, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, are known to be active
in the area.
Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the killing of “our hard-working farmers
by terrorists in Borno state,” according to Al
Jazeera.
“The entire
country,” he said, “is hurt by these senseless killings.”
Dozens of the
bodies were taken a little more than a mile away to Zabarmari
village for burial on Sunday, a resident Mala Bunu,
who took part in the search-and-rescue operation, told AFP.
Earlier this
month, suspected Boko Haram men reportedly killed 12 Christians, including a
pastor, and kidnapped nine women and young girls in an attack in the same
state, Morning Star News, a nonprofit news organization that covers global
Christian persecution, reported.
Boko Haram is
one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups as it has engaged in its
insurgency in northeast Nigeria and the Lake Chad region for over a decade. The
group has killed and abducted thousands of people over the years.
The United
Nations estimates that
over 3.4 million people in Nigeria have been displaced due to the Islamic
extremist violence in the northeast and violence in the country’s Middle Belt
carried out by radicals from the herding community. The U.N.’s tally includes
2.7 million people who have been displaced because of extremist violence in the
country’s northeast.
At least 121
Christians dead in spate of savage Fulani militant attacks in Nigeria
Barnabas Fund
August 3, 2020
In a spate of
Fulani militant attacks in July on predominantly Christian villages in southern
Kaduna State, Nigeria, at least 121 people were killed and thousands displaced.
The spree of
bloodshed began on 10 July with a three-day onslaught on the Chibob
farming community in Gora wardthat left 22 dead. Then Fulani militants struck in attacks
in Kauru local government area that saw at least 38 murdered in Kagoro town in
the week of 19 July, with 32 killed in Kukum
Daji and Gora Gan in separate attacks.
On 22 July,
armed with knives and machetes, Fulani militants broke into homes in the
mainly-Christian village of Kizachi, southern Kaduna
State, murdering three children and two young people.
Those killed
in Kizachi were:
Kefas Monday, 17
Lydia Monday,
14
Jummai, 9
Giwa Thomas, 14
Living Yohanna, 27
In a horrific
night attack during a torrential rain storm on 23 July, at least seven
Christians died in Doka Avong Village, Kaduna State,
as militants brutally hacked unarmed men and women and children to death with
machetes.
This was the
second attack on the village within days, with seven murdered in an attack days
earlier on 20 July.
At the time of
writing, some injured survivors remain in critical condition in hospital. Many
others are reported missing.
The attackers
also burnt out a number of homes.
Those killed
in Doka Avong were:
John Mallam,
80
Albarka Mallam, 85
Jumare Sule, 76
Hannatu Garba, 55
Thaddeus Albarka, 32
Luvinus Danmori, 52
Daniel Mukadas, 70
On 24 July, in
the town of Zipak also in Kaduna State, at least ten
Christians died, ranging from five-years-old to 75, in a Fulani militant
attack. The militants’ spree of looting, vandalism and arson concluded with the
brutal murders, despite the presence of army, police and paramilitary units
stationed just a mile away.
Those killed
in Zipak were:
Joel Cephas, 5
Kingsley
Raphael, 28
Katung Kantiock, 60
Luka Garba, 75
Victor Ishaya, 22
Madam Dakaci, 52
Kuyet Yayock, 25
Cecelia Audu, 65
Matina Dauda, 70
Yanasan Dauda, 70
A curfew was
imposed across Jemma Local Government Area after the Zipak
raid. But the Fulani militants returned on 25 July to terrorise
the shocked community as it mourned those murdered the previous day.
Islamic
militants kill at least 60 people in north-east Nigeria
The attack in Borno state follows the massacre of 69 villagers in a raid
in the same area
Reuters
Sat 13 Jun
2020
Islamic
militants have killed at least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians and
injured hundreds in twin attacks in north-east Nigeria, residents and a civilian task force
fighter said.
The attacks,
in the Monguno and Nganzai
districts of Borno state, came just days after
militants killed at least 69 people in a raid on a village in a third area, Gubio.
Two
humanitarian workers and three residents told Reuters that militants armed with
heavy weaponry including rocket launchers arrived in Monguno,
a hub for international non-governmental organisations,
at roughly 11am local time. They overran government forces, taking some
casualties but killing at least 20 soldiers and roaming the area for three hours.
The sources
said hundreds of civilians were injured in the crossfire, overwhelming the
local hospital and forcing some of the injured to lay outside the facility
awaiting help.
The sources
said the militants also set fire to the local police station and burned down
the United Nations’ humanitarian hub in the area, although a UN spokesperson
said the facility sustained only light damage.
Fighters
distributed letters to residents, in the local Hausa language, warning them not
to work with the military, white Christian westerners or other “non-believers”.
Militants also
entered Nganzai at about the same time on Saturday,
according to two residents and one Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) fighter.
They arrived on motorcycles and in pickup trucks and killed more than 40
residents, the sources said.
A military
spokesman did not answer calls for comment on the attacks. UN officials could
not immediately be reached for comment.
Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic
State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have killed thousands and displaced
millions in northeastern Nigeria. ISWAP claimed the two Saturday attacks, and
the Gubio attack.
81
killed in bloody Boko Haram attack in Nigerian village
By Bukola
Adebayo and Isaac Abrak, CNN
Wed June 10,
2020
Lagos, Nigeria
(CNN)At least 81 people were killed in an attack on a village by suspected Boko
Haram militants in northeast Nigeria, the Borno state
government said in a statement released to CNN Wednesday.
Residents said
the men attacked the village in armored tanks and trucks filled with guns,
according to the government's statement.
Seven people,
including the village head, children and women, were abducted from the Faduma Kolomdi community, described as a nomadic town in northern Borno.
Residents
reported that the men gathered the villagers on Tuesday morning and started
shooting in the incident which lasted several hours.
One of the
villagers who survived the onslaught told the authorities that the attackers
came under the cover of being Islamic teachers.
"They
gathered us and said they wanted to deliver religious sermon to us. They asked
us to submit whatever arm we had. Some villagers gave up their ... guns, bow,
and arrows.
"Suddenly,
they started shooting at will. Even children and women were not spared, Many were shot at close range," the man, who was not
named, said in the statement.
"We have
buried 49 corpses here while another 32 corpses were taken away by families
from the villages around us.
"The
insurgents abducted seven persons, including our village head. They went away
with 400 cattle," the man added.
Tuesday's attack
involving women and children was carried out by Boko Haram and ISWAP, or
Islamic State West Africa Province, members operating terrorist sleeper cells
in communities in the area, Nigeria military spokesman Sagir
Musa said in a
statement.
A large number
of troops have also been sent to the area to bolster the military's response to
the attack, the army said.
"The
Nigerian Army is committed to investigating the circumstances of these callous
attacks by desperate Boko Haram criminals and the bandits on innocent
civilians," Musa said.
The villagers
accounts were corroborated by former district head Zanna Gubio
who told CNN he transported some of the victims to the hospital with his
vehicle.
He said the
attacks happened on Tuesday morning when some of the herders were feeding their
cattle and the militants summoned them from the fields."My
people were feeding their cattle when Boko Haram ask them to gather together,
and then they started shooting them, they burial lasted for the whole night to
the early hours of this morning," he added.
Borno state governor Babagana
Zulum visited the village on Wednesday and called on
the Nigerian army to strengthen its operations to put an end to the militants'
onslaught on border communities in the state.
Tens of
thousands of people have been killed and more than 3 million people have been
displaced during the more than a decade-long Boko Haram
insurgency in Nigeria's northeast.
The group's
fighters have unleashed carnage, burning mosques, communities and attacking
military outposts in the region.
More than 30
travelers were killed when Boko Haram militants set fire to
vehicles at a roadblock in Auno town in Borno state in February.
350 Nigerian
Christians killed in first 2 months of 2020: NGO report
Group
estimates at least 11,500 Nigerian Christians killed since June 2015
Christian Post
WEDNESDAY,
MARCH 11, 2020
A Nigerian
civil society organization claims that no fewer than 350 Christians have been
killed across the West African country since the start of 2020 and estimates
that about 11,500 Christians have been killed since 2015.
“Nigeria has
fully become a killing field of defenseless Christians,” the Anambra-based
nongovernmental organization International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule
of Law (Intersociety) said this week in a new special report,
titled “Nigeria: A Killing Field Of Defenseless Christians.”
“Available
statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were
recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central
government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen
accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000
and the ‘Highway Bandits’
150-200.”
The
organization, which is headed by Christian criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, has monitored violence against Christians in
Nigeria since 2010 through a team of criminologists, lawyers, journalists,
security, and peace and conflict studies graduates.
Nigeria has
been marred by violence in the last decade-plus due to the rise of extremist
organizations in the northeast like Boko Haram and its splinter group, the
Islamic State’s West Africa Province.
In recent
years, massacres carried out by radicalized Fulani herders against
predominantly Christian farming villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt have also
driven communities from their homes.
Additionally,
bandit gangs have been responsible for carrying out kidnappings along some
major highways.
The United
Nations estimates that
about 2 million people have been internally displaced across Nigeria and 11
million people in need of assistance. An additional 550,000 are said to be
displaced in neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“While 100
percent of the victims of Jihadist Herdsmen attacks across Nigeria are
Christians, the estimated 4,000 Christians killed by Boko Haram were part of
the estimated 6,000 [people in total] massacred by the sect since June 2015,”
the report explains.
“Generally,
many, if not most of the victims of Boko Haram/ISWAP attacks in Nigeria’s
Northeast are Christians. On the part of ‘Bandits/Highway Kidnappers’ in
Northern Nigeria, most of their rural victims are Muslims while many, if not
most, of their roadside victims are Christians traveling to northern or
southern parts of the country using the Birnin-Gwari
Federal Road, near Kaduna, etc.”
For its
monitoring and documentation, Intersociety relies on what it deems to be
credible local and foreign media reports, government accounts, international
rights groups, eyewitness accounts and reports from various Christian bodies in
the country.
Intersociety
reports that Fulani herdsmen accounted for 250 of the 350 deaths recorded in
January and February 2020 while Boko Haram and highway bandit gangs are
responsible for 100 deaths.
In the past
two months, Intersociety reports that radical Fulani militants have carried out
attacks in Nasarawa, Adamawa and Edo in addition to some other locations
throughout the country.
Last year,
Intersociety reported that
no fewer than 2,400 Christians were killed by Fulani radicals in 2018. In 2019,
according to the group, between 1,000 to 1,200 Christians were killed by Fulani
attackers.
While reports
have indicated an increase in deadly Boko Haram attacks beginning in December
2019, Intersociety noted that Boko Haram attacks targeting Christians since
January 2020 intensified in Borno, Adamawa and Taraba
States.
“[The attacks
are] claiming between 50 and 70 Christian lives and loss of churches and other
buildings belonging to Christians,” the report explains, adding that Boko Haram
was responsible for killing at least 1,000 citizens in 2019.
Additionally,
between 100 and 150 Christian travelers were said to have been abducted on
highways since the beginning of the year.
“The killings
targeted at Christians in Nigeria have continued into the first week of March
2020 leading to hacking to death of over a dozen more,” the report reads.
“Among the worst hit in the latest round of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks
are Plateau State with 70-80 deaths, Kaduna [with] 50 deaths, Kogi [with] 30
deaths, Benue [with] 15-20, Delta [with] 16 and Taraba [with] 10.”
In the past 57
months, no fewer than 20 clergymen (including eight Catholic priests and
seminarians) have been hacked to death, while no less than 50 were abducted or
kidnapped, Intersociety reported.
Earlier this
year, Boko Haram kidnapped and then executed the
Rev. Lawan Andimi, chairman
of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s chapter in the Michika Local
Government Area of Adamawa state.
Other slain
religious leaders killed in Nigeria in the past 12 months include
the Revs. Clement Ugwu and Paul Offu.
Intersociety
also estimated that over 2,000 churches and Christian worship centers have been
burned since June 2015, with Fulani herdsmen being responsible for about 1,500
and Boko Haram accounting for 500.
Churches in
Benue, Plateau and southern Kaduna states were among the most targeted by
Fulani radicals.
“In eight
years, between 2011 and 2019, Benue State had lost 600 churches and other
Christian worship centers to Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen," the report states.
Intersociety’s claim that most of the
people killed by Boko Haram are Christian contradicts data given out by Nigeria
President Muhammadu Buhari in early February.
In an op-ed,
Buhari stated that “90 percent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims.”
Buhari claimed that the “now-failing terrorists have targeted the vulnerable,
the religious, the non-religious, the young and the old without
discrimination.”
However, weeks
later, a member of the Nigerian government, Minister of
Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed, acknowledged that terrorists
are focusing their attacks on Christians, noting that in the past, that was not
the case.
"They
have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason,
which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos," he
said while distancing the perpetrators from Muslims and noting
that Muslims have also been victimized.
Death toll
statistics in Nigeria can vary depending on which organization is providing
them because of the lack of adequate government record-keeping, International
Committee on Nigeria co-founder Stephen Enada previously told The
Christian Post.
Enada, who fled to the United States in 2016 after
his cousin was killed by Fulani radicals, believes that reported death tolls
should be construed as nothing more than estimations.
“When you talk
about data mining statistics, Nigeria doesn’t even have a national data record
to even say [what is] our population,” Enada
explained at the time. “So sometimes, if somebody is killed, you don’t even
have a way to trace a person to his family outside his community because we
don’t have data.”
“Because we don’t
have such data, it is very complicated. Sometimes, when people are killed, they
will just do a mass burial where there is no autopsy, post mortem, no record.
If you go to these communities, you will see that they don’t have any record
for the people who died. That is what we are working with.”
Last November,
the U.K.-based NGO Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust estimated after
a fact-finding mission that at least 1,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria
from January 2019 until November 2019.
HART, founded
by Parliament member Baroness Caroline Cox, estimated that at least 6,000
Christians were killed since 2015.
A HART
spokesperson clarified to CP that the 1,000-deaths estimation counts
“predominantly people killed in Plateau, Southern Kaduna and Taraba states by
Fulani Herdsmen” but also includes some killings by Boko Haram in Borno state.
The HART
spokesperson added that the estimation was partly based on reports from the
Kaduna state government and reports from the Plateau state. HART's estimations
also include Boko Haram’s killing of security officers and soldiers believed to
be Christians.
Violence in Plateau
State, Nigeria Escalates with more Muslim Fulani Herdsmen Attacks
At least 32 Christians killed in assaults this
week.
January 30, 2020
JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – At
least 32 people were killed and a pastor’s house and church building were
burned down in two nights of attacks this week by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in
Plateau state, Nigeria, sources said.
The Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN)
building and home were destroyed in an attack on predominantly Christian Marish
village on Monday evening (Jan. 27), one of three communities in Bokkos County hit in armed assaults that began the previous
evening, area residents said. The attacks were the latest bloodshed in an
escalation of violence in Plateau state, where herdsmen killed Christians
in Riyom
and Mangu counties earlier this month.
Herdsmen killed 17 people in Marish and Ruboi villages on Monday after killing 15 people in an
attack on Kwatas on Sunday (Jan. 26), Titus Ayuba Alams, former speaker of
the Plateau state House of Assembly, told Morning Star News.
“The attacks took place between the hours
of 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Kwatas on Sunday, and
also on Monday within the same time frame on Ruboi
and Marish by the herdsmen,” Alam said.
Five people were wounded in the attacks and
several houses were burned, area resident Theophilus Mancha told Morning Star
News.
“A pregnant woman and 16 others have been
killed,” Mancha said.
Kwatas, Marish and Ruboi are suburbs of Bokkos town,
about 15 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of Plateau State University, Bokkos.
Kelly Kanang, another
area resident, confirmed that Fulani herdsmen launched the attacks.
Benjamin Dogo of Kwatas informed Morning Star News in a text message, “Our
people have been killed again. About 15 of the dead have been evacuated to the
mortuary along with many others that sustained injuries during the
attack on Sunday night.”
State police said 13 persons were killed and
five injured in the attack on Kwatas. Police
spokesman Ubah Gabriel Ogaba
on Monday confirmed the attack by “unknown gunmen” on Kwatas
in a press statement.
Ruboi and Marish were
attacked after police issued the statement, and officers have provided no
details on those attacks.
Plateau Gov. Simon Lalong
condemned the attacks on the Christian communities in a statement through press
spokesman Makut Macham.
“My heart again bleeds by this tragedy as lives
of innocent citizens are cut short for no reason,” reads the statement issued
on Monday. “Security agencies must go after those who are behind these attacks
and their sponsors so they can face the law and be taught a lesson.”
Sen. Istifanus Gyang, deputy chairman of the Nigerian Senate Committee on
Defense, said attacks on the Christian communities raise questions on the
readiness of security agencies to protect people against herdsmen onslaughts.
“Only last week, Kombun
village in Mangu LGA was attacked and now, it is Kwatas, Marish, and Ruboi
villages in neighboring Bokkos LGA,” he said.
Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2020
World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution but
second in the number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Pakistan.
30 Killed in
Northeast Nigeria Bomb Blast on Crowded Bridge
By Reuters
January 06,
2020
At least 30
people were killed in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno
after an improvised explosive device detonated on a bridge, sources told
Reuters on Monday.
The bomb
detonated at roughly 5 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) on a crowded bridge in the
market town of Gamboru that leads into neighboring
Cameroon.
Witnesses in
the market town said more than 35 injured people were taken to the local
hospital following the attack.
"It is an
unfortunate day for us to witness this frustrating and devastating incident in
our community," eyewitness Modu Ali Said told
Reuters.
"I just
heard a loud sound of explosions, before I realized I saw many of our friends
and colleagues were killed," Said added.
Two sources
with the Civilian Joint Task Force, a group of citizens formed to fight Boko
Haram, confirmed the attack and the early death toll estimates.
No group
immediately took responsibility. Both Boko Haram and the regional offshoot of
Islamic State, known as ISWAP, are active in the area.
More than
6,000 Christians killed by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria since 2015, 1000
in last year alone: Reports
The reports
published on 18 November titled "Your Land or Your Body" mentioned
that more than 6,000 Christians have been killed and 12,000 displaced by
members of the Fulani ethnic group since 2015.
DECEMBER 26,
2019
Opindia
In a shocking
revelation, more than 6,000 Christians have been brutally murdered in the last
four years and 1,000 of them in last year alone by Islamic terrorists in
Nigeria, reports Fox
News.
According to a
report circulated by Christian news outlets, more than 1,000 Christians have
been killed by Fulani herdsmen fuelled by Islamist
ideology in the last year in Nigeria.
The Islamic
terrorist group named Fulani herdsmen have murdered Christians as part of an
aggressive and strategic land-grabbing strategy across the Plateau, Benue,
Taraba, Southern Kaduna and parts of Bauchi state, said Humanitarian Aid
Relief Trust (HART), a British not for profit organisation.
The reports
published on 18 November titled “Your Land or Your Body” mentioned that more
than 6,000 Christians have been killed and 12,000 displaced by Islamic
terrorists, members of the Fulani ethnic group since 2015 in Nigeria.
“They attack
rural villages, force villagers off their lands and settle in their place — a
strategy that is epitomized by the phrase: ‘Your land or your blood”. In every
village, the message from local people is the same: ‘Please, please help us!
The Fulani are coming. We are not safe in our own homes’,” the report read.
Nomadic Fulani
herdsmen seek to replace diversity and difference with an Islamist ideology
which is imposed with violence on those who refuse to comply. It is genocide
according to the Nigerian House of Representatives, said Baroness Cox, member
of House of Lords, who runs the non-profit organisation.
“Something has
to change — urgently,” said Cox. “For the longer, we tolerate these massacres,
the more we embolden the perpetrators. We give them a ‘green light’ to carry on
killing,” he added.
As the population
in the Sahara Desert continues to expand, there is increasing tension over
land-scarcity and the predominantly Christian communities remain an easy target
of land-grabbing attacks. Christians are also being targeted and killed by Boko
Haram, a jihad terrorist group.
Reportedly,
the Fulani herdsmen are responsible for the majority of the Christian deaths in
Nigeria in 2019. About half of the Christian deaths this year occurred in five
separate attacks in Kaduna between January and November, the report said.
“The attacks
have, on occasion, led to retaliatory violence, as communities conclude that
they can no longer rely on the government for protection or justice,” the
report said.
65 Dead in Boko Haram
Attack at Funeral
CNN
ABUJA, NIGERIA – The latest accounts say that
some 65 people in Maiduguri, Nigeria, have died in a Boko Haram attack during a
funeral in the northeastern village. Another 10 people reportedly sustained
injuries, eight of who are in critical condition following Saturday’s attack.
Boko Haram was initially known as the
“Nigerian Taliban” when it came into prominence in 2002. The words “Boko Haram”
are from the Hausu dialect. They mean, “Western
education is forbidden.” The name itself is another indication of the growing
nationalistic resistance to the imperialism and colonialism that, by and large,
ceased more than half-a-century ago.
According to CNN, the group refers to itself
as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad, meaning “People Committed to the
Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad.” That title, rarely heard or
seen in the media, carries a sinister connotation that is more descriptive of
its intent as it attacks, captures, tortures, and murders innocent villagers.
In fact, the group has no apparent political
affiliation. Rather, it is an independent terrorist group opposed to any
government outside of Sharia law.
A local militia leader told Al Jazeera
correspondents that the terrorists attacked a group of mourners at a gravesite,
killing 23 of them. The other 42 who perished were among a group of villagers
who attempted to pursue the attackers.
Despite their best efforts, the villagers
were outnumbered and ill-equipped. The people in Maiduguri and other villages
have attempted to arm themselves as local militias to protect their neighbors.
The loss of life suffered in this incident may lead some to despair that the
terrorists are insuperable.
The creation of local militias has stemmed
from the inability of Nigerian government forces to subdue and control Boko
Haram. The terrorist group has murdered 27,000 people over the past decade.
More than two million people remain displaced, having fled the areas where the
terrorists have been most active.
Last year, Missions Box News published the
story of Leah Sharibu, a Christian schoolgirl
who had been one of 100 that Boko Haram had abducted. Her captors told her they
would release her once she renounced Jesus Christ. Because she did not, she
remained captive while the others were released.
Although the terrorists swore
they would not harm Leah, a recently released employee of Action Against
Hunger, who had also been captured, indicated that Leah had been killed
following an escape attempt. Authorities have not yet been able to confirm this
story.
We encourage our readers to pray for those
who are persecuted around the globe. Pray especially for the people of Nigeria,
and that many would come to Christ as a result of the oppression they are
suffering. Pray for the families who lost loved ones in Saturday’s attack.
Plead with the God of Mercy to demonstrate His compassion for these people.
Muslim Extremists Murder Over 30 Nigerian
Christians In Devastating Attack
Daily Wire
March 1, 2019
Over 30 Nigerian Christians were killed in a brutal early morning attack by
radical Islamic Fulani herdsmen, who have been systematically targeting
believers living on lands the extremists claim to be their territory.
The Guardian reports that the deadly assault
occurred at around 4 a.m. near the town of Maro, in Kajuru County of Kaduna state, where the attackers set fire
to several buildings, including homes and churches. The extremists shot
civilians with rifles as they fled the burning establishments.
A member of local church Evangelical Church
Winning All (ECWA) told Morning Star News that members “ran out of the church
building as the shooting was going on.” She added, “Many have been killed, and
I have not seen my family members since morning. I have escaped out of the
area.”
Some villagers and local policemen tried to
resist the radical Muslim assault but were forced to retreat as the attackers
overwhelmed them by sheer numbers and firepower.
Kaduna’s local state government condemned the
attack in a statement from Samuel Aruwan, the Senior
Special Assistant to the Governor.
“Today, the Kaduna State government was
briefed by security agencies of renewed attacks in Kajuru
Local Government Area, and in parts of neighboring Kachia
Local Government Area,” he said. “The state government has been assured that
the security agencies are working assiduously to contain the situation. The
government is saddened by these attacks, condemns the perpetrators and urges
all residents of the area to support the security agencies in their efforts to
protect communities.”
The violence was so severe that a nearby
boarding school administered by the Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS)
evacuated to protect the children.
“We evacuated about hundred EMS kids from Kufana for safety,” explained school director Bakari
Ibrahim to Morning Star News. “Many of our missionaries working among the Kadara tribe and some in Katari
areas have been displaced. Please keep praying for our nation.”
Kaduna governor Aminu Tambuwal expressed
sadness for the victims and called for more security in the Kajuru
and Kachia counties to protect “people’s lives and
property.”
The state chairman of the Christian Association
of Nigeria Kaduna chapter Reverend Joseph Hayap said
of the attack: “We have appealed to the youths in the area that there must
never be any reprisal. We want to give the security operatives in the state the
benefit of the doubt to go after the killers. We don’t want any reprisal attack
because the circle of violence and killings will continue.”
Nigeria has been facing growing unrest as
radical Islamic terrorist groups, including the Fulani herdsmen, have been
ramping up attacks on Christians, who make up about 51% of the population.
In September 2018, Islamic extremists raided
Christian homes and murdered 11 civilians in a brutal assault in the city of
Jos, the capital city of the Plateau State of the African nation.
"When the Fulani herdsmen came, they shot
into the house randomly, breaking and forcing their way into rooms, shooting
defenseless women and children and anyone in sight," a survivor said at
the time.
Christian persecution watchdog group Open
Doors ranks Nigeria high on the "World Watch List," sitting at number
12 just below Syria.
Boko Haram Killed At Least 60 People in Attack in Nigeria, Amnesty
International Reports
By
AMELIA NIERENBERG / AP
February 1, 2019
(DAKAR, Senegal) — Boko Haram has
killed at least 60 people in a “devastating” attack on the northeastern Nigeria
border town of Rann, Amnesty International said
Friday, calling it one of the deadliest assaults by the extremist group in its
nearly decade-long insurgency.
Fighters on motorcycles drove through the town
near the Cameroon border on Monday morning, setting houses on fire and killing
people left behind, the international rights group said in a series of Twitter
posts. The fighters also chased residents fleeing the “massive attack” and
killed several outside town.
Amnesty published satellite imagery that it
said showed “hundreds of burned structures.” Many likely served as shelters for
displaced people who had arrived in recent months seeking protection. Most of Rann is “now destroyed,” the group said.
The attack came as Nigeria faces what it has
called an extremist resurgence, posing a serious challenge for President
Muhammadu Buhari as he seeks re-election in two weeks’ time. His administration
once claimed Boko Haram had been “crushed” or “technically defeated,” while the
military has faced questions over low morale and support.
Rann also was attacked in mid-January, sending at
least 9,000 people fleeing to Cameroon, according to aid agencies. More than
30,000 joined them across the border in late January, the United Nations
refugee agency said. Thousands more fled to nearby Chad, the refugee agency
said.
“Many people were in a state of shock and were
clearly distressed by what they had witnessed. Now they have lost all that they
have and need absolutely everything,” Hugues Robert, the Nigeria program
director for Doctors Without Borders, said following the mid-January attack.
A nurse with the medical charity said the
normally bustling town was “like a graveyard” following that attack. “There was
still smoke drifting in the sky and the fires were still burning in places,”
Isa Sadq Bwala said. “All
that’s left are piles of ashes.”
Far-flung Rann has
played a tragic role in Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram. In January 2017,
Nigeria’s air force mistakenly launched an airstrike on a refugee camp in the
town because it said the camp was not appropriately marked as a humanitarian
base on its maps. Officials and community leaders said between 100 and 236
people were killed.
In March of last year, three workers for
United Nations agencies were among 11 people killed in a Boko Haram attack on a
military base in Rann.
Three health workers were abducted. Two have
since been killed despite urgent pleas from the aid community to spare their
lives.
118
soldiers reportedly killed, 153 others missing following Boko Haram attack
According to reports, wounded soldiers have also
been evacuated to Borno for treatment.
Published: 24.11.2018
Chika Ebuzor
The number of soldiers who were killed during
the recent Boko Haram attack has reportedly increased to 118.
Premium Times reports that a source in the
Nigerian Army said that 153 others are yet to be accounted for.
On Monday, November 19, 2018, the terrorists
invaded a military base in Metele village, Guzamala local government area of Borno
State.
According to Premium Times, soldiers who were
wounded during the attack have also been evacuated to Borno
for treatment.
Army responds
While responding to reports in the media, the
Nigerian Army issued a statement saying that the number of casualties published
on social media is false.
It also described the videos being shared online
as old and inaccurate, adding that they are propaganda materials put out by
Boko haram.
An excerpt of the statement reads: ” It is important for the public to note that the NA
has laid down procedures for reporting incidents that involve its personnel who
fall casualty in action. Out of respect for the families of our gallant troops,
the NOKs(Next of Kins) are
first notified before any form of public information so as to avoid
exacerbating the grief family members would bear, were they to discover such
from unofficial sources.
“Furthermore, it suffices to observe that
several social media, print and online publications have been brandishing false
casualty figures as well as circulating various footages of old and inaccurate
BHT propaganda videos and alluding same to be the attack on 157 Task Force
Battalion.
“Whilst it is understandable how such
misinformation can spread in this era of social media frenzy, the spurious
circulation of some of these videos only contribute to further propagate the
propaganda intent of the terrorists; to misinform the populace and portray
themselves as what they are not. So far, the situation is that the location is
under control as reinforcing units have been able to repel the terrorists and stabilise the situation.”
The recent killing of soldiers by Boko Haram
has been condemned by several Nigerians on social media.
Most of them also called out the Federal
Government for keeping quiet about the issue.
President Buhari has however asked the Minister
of Defence, retired Brig-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali, to meet
with the Chadian President, Idris Deby over the
deterioration of security at the Nigeria – Chad border.
Dozens of Christians Killed in Muslim Attack
on Market in Kaduna State, Nigeria
Church
building set on fire in assault that escalated, residents say.
October 22, 2018
Morning Star News
JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Muslims attacked a market in Kaduna state,
in north-central Nigeria, on Thursday (Oct. 18), killing dozens of Christians
and burning a church building, sources said.
Area residents said a Muslim at the market in Kasuwan
Magani, 36 kilometers (22 miles) south of the city of
Kaduna, began yelling “Thief!” in the late afternoon in a move calculated to
cause pandemonium ahead of an attack on Christians and their homes and
businesses.
“A Muslim raised a false alarm about a thief in the market, which caused
stampede, and then other Muslims started chanting ‘Allahu Akbar [the jihadist
slogan, God is Greater],’ attacking Christians, burning houses and shops
belonging to Christians in the town,” area resident Kefas
Mallam told Morning Star News.
The Rev. James Moore of the town’s Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), told
Morning Star News that the assailants burned down one church building belonging
to the Cherubim and Seraphim movement.
“There was an alert of a thief in the market,” he said. “When people heard
‘Thief! Thief!’ they were confused and started running. Unknown to the people,
it was a strategy by the Muslim youth to attack the people. They went into
killings, looting and burning.”
Moore, who is the area district secretary of the ECWA, said it was difficult to
give a definitive casualty figure as the town was in complete lockdown
following imposition of a 24-hour curfew the night of the attack. Kaduna Gov.
Nasir El-Rufai visited the site in the Kajuru Local
Government Area on Friday (Oct. 19) and said 55 people had been killed.
“According to what the police have briefed me so far, 55 corpses have been
recovered; some burned beyond recognition,” he said.
Local press reported the violence began as an attack by young men attacking the
market that escalated into a clash between “two youth groups of different
religion.”
Gov. El-Rufai told reporters that the state government had imposed a curfew in
the area and security agencies were restoring calm.
“It cannot continue, we are going to deal decisively with anyone involved in
this,” he said. “This country belongs to all of us; this state belongs to all
of us. No one is going to chase anyone away. So, you must learn to live with
everyone in peace and justice.”
He added that the violence was “totally unacceptable,” and that anyone
connected with or even observing the violence would be detained.
“I have charged the security agencies and the authorities here, local and
traditional, to ensure that everyone connected with this, whether as a
participant, instigator, or even watching while it is going on, is apprehended
and prosecuted,” he said.
Area Muslims also attacked Christians on Feb. 26. Luke Waziri, a Christian
community leader in Kasuwan Magani,
told Morning Star News by phone that during the February attack, 12 Christians
were killed.
“And 67 other Christians arrested after that incident are currently facing
trial in a court in the city of Kaduna,” he added, lamenting that they were
detained without cause by police under the direct control of a Muslim inspector
general of police and a Muslim police commissioner.
“The sad thing is that the police are aware that Muslims in Kasuwan
Magani have accumulated weapons with the intent to
continually attack us, but they are unable to arrest these Muslims,” Waziri
said.
Waziri, who is the national secretary of the Adara Development Association
(ADA), a predominantly Christian ethnic group in Kaduna state, expressed
sadness that while Christians had yet to overcome the trauma of the February
attack, Muslims launched an assault on them again on Thursday (Oct. 18).
Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Muslims living
primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent.
Nigeria ranked 14th on Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where
Christians suffer the most persecution.
Crisis in Nigeria as THOUSANDS killed in 'pure GENOCIDE'
THOUSANDS of men, women and children have been killed in Nigeria in what the
country's Christian community are condemning as “ethnic cleansing”.
By JOEY MILLAR
Express
June 30, 2018
Last weekend 238 Christians were killed in a number of attacks by militia in
Plateau State, a region in the heart of the country.
Campaigners are warning it is just the latest example of “pure genocide” in a
country ravaged by religious division.
A joint statement issued by the Christian Association of Nigeria said more than
6,000 Christian worshippers - “mostly children, women and the aged” - had
already been killed this year.
They said: “There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed
at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian
natives from their ancestral land and heritage.
“What is happening in Plateau state and other select states in Nigeria is pure
genocide and must be stopped immediately.”
They said those responsible were being allowed to “go scot free” and said the
Nigerian government was wrongly trying to paint the attacks as
“farmers/herdsmen clashes”.
The statement said: “How can it be a clash when one group is persistently
attacking, killing, maiming, destroying and the other group is persistently
being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?
“How can it be a clash when the herdsmen are hunting farmers in their own
villages/communities and farmers are running for their lives?”
They said the police service was "skewed" against Christians and even
accused the government of being "lukewarm" in its attempts to free
the Chibok schoolgirls.
Nigeria is one of the world’s most dangerous countries to be a Christian with
anti-persecution organisation Open Doors ranking it
14th on its annual watchlist.
They said Islamic extremism, especially in the north of the country, was
leading to “hostility towards Christians”.
Open Doors said: “Believers experience discrimination
and exclusion, and violence from militant Islamic groups, resulting in the loss
of property, land, livelihood, physical injury or death. This is spreading
southwards.
“Corruption has enfeebled the state and made it ill-equipped to protect
Christians. Rivalry between ethnic groups and raids by Fulani herdsmen compound
the persecution.
“Converts face rejection from their Muslim families and pressure to
recant."
Scores killed, homes burned in Plateau State
attacks
By
Stephanie Busari, CNN
June 25, 2018
Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)At least 86 people have been killed in attacks in central
Nigeria, police said, an incident that has the potential to exacerbate ethnic
tensions in an increasingly volatile region.
The violence, thought to be carried out by armed herdsmen, flared on Saturday
in Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, police said.
"Eighty six persons all together were killed, six
people injured, fifty houses burnt," said police spokesman Terna Tyopev.
Violence between the nomadic Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslims, and
farmers, who are predominantly Christians, have rocked Nigeria's Middle Belt
since 2013 and are becoming more common.
Amid fears of revenge attacks from affected local communities, Simon Lalong, the governor of Plateau, announced that authorities
will enforce a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in Jos.
Lalong called the curfew "an immediate measure
to protect the lives of citizens" in a statement on Twitter and said it
will be in effect "until further notice."
He promised to follow up with longer term measures to secure peace in the area.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari posted a message on Twitter sending
condolences to those affected and appealing for calm.
"The grievous loss of lives and property arising from the killings in
Plateau today is painful and regrettable," he said.
"We will not rest until all murderers and criminal elements and their
sponsors are incapacitated and brought to justice," Buhari said.
Vice President Yemi Osibajo visited Plateau State on
Monday to condole with families and communities affected by the attacks, his
aide Laolu Akande said.
Akande said Osibajo met with different parties
affected by the conflict in the state to discuss an end to the spate of
violence in the state.
The Nigerian President's ability to quell violence in the country is certain to
be a defining issue in the upcoming 2019 presidential elections.
Nigeria is already grappling with a decade-long Boko Haram insurgency, which
has killed thousands of people and displaced millions internally.
Buhari, who is ethnically Fulani, has been accused of not doing enough to stop
the violence and widely criticized on social media for his perceived inaction.
Furious Nigerians have taken to social media to voice their anger at the
relative ease at which the herdsmen repeatedly attack vulnerable communities
across the Middle Belt.
At least 72 people were killed in January following weeks of violence between
nomadic herdsmen and farmers killed Benue State, another central region state.
Another 19 people, including two priests, were killed in Benue State in April
after a gunmen opened fire at a church, police said.
Buhari visited Benue state to console families and communities affected by
attacks earlier this year, but argues that the problem is a wide ranging one
that pre-dates his administration.
Buhari said that some of the armed herdsmen were trained by Libya's security
services under the country's former ruler, Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted from
power and killed in 2011.
"These gunmen were trained and armed by Moammar Gadhafi of Libya. When he
was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms. We encountered some of them
fighting with Boko Haram," in a report on Nigeria's Channels television in
April.
Since then, Buhari said the crisis had been "made worse by the influx of
armed gunmen from the Sahel region into different parts of the West African
sub-region" Buhari said in a conversation with the Archbishop of
Canterbury Justin Welby during his visit to London in April.
Boko Haram ambush death toll hits 69
AFP
Updated July 30, 2017
KANO: At least 69 people died in a Boko Haram ambush of an oil exploration team
in north-east Nigeria, as three men kidnapped by the jihadists made a video
appeal.
Experts said the attack — Boko Haram’s bloodiest this year — underscored the
persistent threat it poses, despite government claims the group is a spent
force.
“So far the death toll stands at 69,” said an aid agency worker involved in the
recovery of bodies after the attack in the Magumeri
area of Borno state on Tuesday.
The worker, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said 19 soldiers, 33
civilian militia and 17 civilians were killed.
“The last body was recovered on Friday in the bush in the Geidam
district of neighbouring Yobe state, which is several
kilometres from the scene of the ambush,” he said.
“It shows the victim, who had gunshot wounds, died after trekking a long
distance. There could be more such victims in the bush.”
Another source with knowledge of the rescue operation gave the death toll as
“70 or more” and also said it was unclear whether all the victims had been
accounted for.
The attack hit Nigerian National Petroleum Corpor¬ation
(NNPC) staff.
“It’s a confirmation of the boldness and reassurance that Boko Haram has
managed to gain over the last six weeks,” said Yan St-Pierre, from the Modern
Security Consulting Group.
“They have been attacking more and more military outposts and more military
convoys. For them to go after NNPC personnel just shows they don’t fear any
military reprisal.
“Basically they have managed to gain enough resources,
enough material, to plan ambushes targeted towards high value targets.”
News of the rising death toll came after Boko Haram published a four-minute
video in which three men identified themselves as being from the University of
Maiduguri.
The trio were part of a NNPC team on a mission to find commercial quantities of
oil in the Lake Chad basin.
“I want to call on the acting president professor Yemi Osinbajo to come to our
rescue to meet the demand,” one of the men says in the video, which he said was
shot on Friday.
He attributed the attack to the IS-supported Boko Haram faction headed by Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi, which has
vowed to hit military and government targets.
“They have promised us that if their demands are met
they will release us immediately to go back to the work we were caught doing,”
the man added.
University of Maiduguri spokesman Danjuma Gambo confirmed the identities of the
three kidnapped men in the video. “They are our staff but one more is yet to be
accounted for,” he said.
Five members of staff from the university — two lecturers, two technologists
and a driver — were killed, vice-chancellor Ibrahim Njodi
said on Friday.
He told reporters the university had been hesitant to send staff with the NNPC
team but had been assured about security.
Nigeria is searching for oil in the northeast to try to reduce its reliance on
supplies from the Niger delta, where militant attacks have slashed production.
Kidnapping has been a feature of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed at
least 20,000, displaced more than 2.6 million and left millions of others on
the brink of famine.
Thousands of women and girls have been seized, to be married off to fighters,
used as sex slaves or suicide bombers, while men and boys have been made to
fight in the Islamist ranks.
The al-Barnawi faction differs from fighters loyal to
Boko Haram’s long-time leader Abubakar Shekau in that it disagrees with the
indiscriminate targeting of civilians.
On Friday, two suicide bombers struck a camp for displaced people in Dikwa, 90 kilometres east of
Maiduguri, killing eight, said local government official Rawa
Gana Modu.
In Bama, 70 kilometres southeast of Maiduguri, three
young female suicide bombers were killed when their explosives detonated
prematurely on Thursday.
Boko Haram leader urges fighters: kill, slaughter and abduct
December
31, 2016
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Boko Haram's leader is urging his fighters to
"kill, slaughter and abduct ... and detonate bombs everywhere," in a
new video that denies Nigerian government claims that his Islamic extremist
group has been crushed.
President Muhammadu Buhari declared last week that soldiers had driven Boko
Haram from its last forest enclave, with fighters on the run and no place to
hide.
Abubakar Shekau in a video posted on YouTube Thursday announces he is
"well and alive."
Nigeria's military said they seized Shekau's Quran in an assault on Boko
Haram's last hideout in the northeastern Sambisa Forest — wanting to indicate
he was on the run. The military has at least three times in the past claimed to
have killed Shekau, only to have him reappear in a video.
Nigerian Middle Belt state: 800+ Christians killed, 800+ injured, 100+ churches
destroyed
Published:
Oct. 26, 2016
Worldwatch Monitor
Nigeria’s Middle Belt is the scene of ever-continuing attacks on Christian
farmers by mainly Muslim Hausa-Fulani herdsmen, including this past week where
attacks have occurred in both Kaduna and Benue states. Now a recent report
about another state in the Middle Belt, Nasarawa, shows that it too has been
the scene of serious violence against Christians. In the period January
2013–May 2016, 826 Christians were killed and 878 injured. There were 102
churches destroyed or damaged.
Beside these, 787 houses were
destroyed, as well as nine shops, and 32 motorised
vehicles. Many families were completely deprived of their livelihoods. Around
21,000 Christians were reported as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in
different camps inside and outside Nasarawa. Due to the difficult security
situation, the authors of the in-depth fact-finding report are convinced that
they were only able to report part of what really happened.
Their Nigeria Conflict and
Security Analysis Network (NCSAN) report shows that Nasarawa has been engulfed
in various forms of conflict since its creation in 1996. Many researchers,
policy makers and government officials have explained the conflict in terms of
politics, ethnicity and economic contestation over land and resources. In most
cases, the religious component of the conflict has been completely downplayed, marginalised, excluded or neglected.
However, field research conducted
by NCSAN on the conflicts which occurred from 2013 to 2016 reveals that
Christians have been specifically targeted. Emerging evidence suggests there is
a strategic agenda to target and persecute ethnic groups that are predominantly
Christian.
The targeting of Christians
appears to be carried out by the Hausa-Fulani herdsmen and by deliberate
government policies to marginalise Christians and
Christian communities. This is evident in political power-sharing and
domination through traditional rulership. Islamic identity tends to give
Muslims undue advantage over the affairs of the state. Indeed, state government
policies are crafted to favour Islam and Muslims. The
ongoing persecution of Christians in Nasarawa, like many other places in
northern Nigeria, has been ignored.
This study unearths the drivers
of persecution against Christian communities in Nasarawa and, importantly, it
provides the basis for a policy proposition that encourages the need to build
common citizenship among the people.
The report is the third in a
series published by Open Doors' World Watch Research unit. The first report
highlighted non-Boko Haram violence against Christians in the Middle Belt
region of Nigeria. The second report investigated in greater detail violent
conflict in Taraba from 2013 to 2015.
Dozens slaughtered and church burned down in latest Fulani massacre
Ruth
Gledhill
CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
27 April 2016
Up 40 people or more have been
slaughtered in a new atrocity by an armed force of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria's
Enugu State, according to local reports.
In the run-up to the massacre,
local news sites commented on the arrival of 500 heavily-armed herdsmen in and
around seven villages in the Nimbo area.
Ten homes were razed by arson,
cars and motorcycles were destroyed, animals killed and Christ Holy Church
International also burnt to the ground, the Nigerian news site Vanguard
reported.
One young man died when the bus
he was travelling in was set fire to near the church.
One victim, Kingsley Ezugwu, speaking to Vanguard from his hospital bed, said:
"I was coming out from the house when I heard the community bell ringing.
I was going with a friend to know what the bell was all about, only to see
about 40 Fulani herdsmen armed with sophisticated guns and machetes.
"They pursued us, killed my
friend and shot at me several times but missed. They caught up with me and used
machetes on me until I lost consciousness."
When the attackers realised he was still alive,
others were summoned to finish him off. He managed to crawl away and said he
was helped to hospital by a "good samaritan".
Many survivors fled the villages.
A spokesman for Rochas Okorocha, the local governor, said: "Our
problem in this country is that whatever happens is given an ethnic colouration and that makes the solution to such problem
somewhat difficult."
According to the Igbo Youth
Movement, Fulani herdsmen have murdered more than 700 Nigerians in the last 10
months, with the Federal Government taking no action to halt the killings.
Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar,
a defence spokesman in Nigeria, told IBTimes that security forces were investigating the
killings. "Security agencies will issue a statement soon, investigations
are ongoing," he said.
He was unable to confirm the
numbers killed in the latest attack. Estimates in Nigeria range from 20 to 48
people.
Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria leave 52 dead
By Aminu Abubakar and Briana Duggan, CNN
December 29, 2015
Kano, Nigeria (CNN) Attacks by suspected Boko
Haram militants have left more than 50 people dead and as many as 114 others
wounded in the northeastern Nigerian cities of Maiduguri and Madagali in the
past 24 hours, according to residents and Nigerian officials.
Three young female suicide bombers detonated
explosives -- two of them together at a market in Madagali Monday morning,
killing 30 people, a local official said, and one at a checkpoint in Maiduguri,
where one person died.
Sunday evening in Maiduguri, Nigerian troops battled armed Boko Haram fighters
trying to enter the city, fighting that left at least 21 people dead and 91 wounded,
according to Mohammed Kanar, head of National
Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The Nigerian troops had spotted a group of
armed Boko Haram fighters trying to cross a trench to get into the Jiddari Polo area of Maiduguri and opened fire on them, said
Babakura Kolo, a vigilante
assisting the military in fighting Boko Haram.
That city has been fortified with trenches to
prevent infiltration by Boko Haram.
"Some of the insurgents managed to cross
into Jiddari Polo and engaged soldiers in battles
with guns and explosives," said Usman Bala,
another vigilante assisting the military.
Resident Madu Goni said the fighting lasted for almost two hours.
"This forced us to abandon our homes in
fear," Goni said.
Hours later, on Monday morning, a teenage
female suicide bomber killed one person and wounded seven others in an attack
on a checkpoint in the Maiduguri suburb of Kushari,
authorities said.
"The suicide bomber blended with the crowd
and detonated her explosives," explained a Kushari
resident who wished to remain anonymous for fear of Boko Haram reprisals.
Two other residents corroborated his account.
The later attacks in Madagali, with two young
female suicide bombers, left 30 dead and at least 16 wounded, according to a
local government official who asked not to be named.
Brig. Gen. Victor Ezugwu,
the military chief in Adamawa state, confirmed the twin suicide blasts to
reporters but gave no further details.
Adamawa state borders Borno
state, a Boko Haram stronghold. The militant group has frequently attacked
Madagali and in August 2014 briefly captured the town, forcing residents to
flee to the state capital of Yola, 225 kilometers south (140 miles).
10 generals guilty of arming Boko Haram
By
MICHELLE FAUL
June 3, 2014
KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — Ten generals and five other senior military officers
have been found guilty in courts-martial of providing arms and information to
Boko Haram extremists, several Nigerian newspapers said Tuesday, though the
military insisted there was no truth in the reports.
They follow months of allegations from politicians and soldiers who told The
Associated Press that some senior officers were helping the Islamic extremists
and that some rank-and-file soldiers even fight alongside the insurgents and
then return to army camps. They have said that information provided by army
officers has helped insurgents in ambushing military convoys and in attacks on
army barracks and outposts in their northeastern stronghold.
Leadership newspaper quoted one officer saying that four other officers, in
addition to the 15, were found guilty of "being disloyal and for working
for the members of the sect."
Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade,
who last week denied reports saying senior officers were being investigated,
reiterated in a statement on Tuesday that defense headquarters "wishes to
state once again categorically that there is no truth whatsoever in the
report."
He called it a "falsehood" concocted by those who "appear
hell-bent on misleading Nigerians and the international community to give
credence to the negative impression they are so keen to propagate about the
Nigerian military."
Nigeria's military often denies substantiated reports, such as on extrajudicial
killings of civilians and detainees. It is accused of such gross human rights
violations that the U.S. efforts to help in the rescue of nearly 300 abducted
schoolgirls have been limited by U.S. law restricting sharing of some types of
information and technology with abusive security forces.
The alleged sabotage by senior officers could explain the military's failure to
curb a 5-year-old Islamic uprising by Boko Haram that has killed thousands
despite a year-long state of emergency in the northeast.
Boko Haram has attracted international condemnation and U.N. sanctions since
its April 15 abduction of more than 300 schoolgirls, of whom 272 remain
captive.
Nigerian activists pressing the government to rescue the schoolgirls filed a
complaint Tuesday against a police ban on protests.
"We filed a complaint that the police don't have any right to stop people
from expressing themselves," said community leader Pogu
Bitrus of Chibok, the town from which the girls were
abducted.
The protests have "degenerated" and are "now posing a serious
security threat," Abuja police commissioner Joseph Mbu
said in a statement Monday banning all protests in the capital related to the
topic.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, said such a ban
violates basic rights under the Nigerian constitution.
However, Nigerian police on Tuesday said they had not ordered a ban on peaceful
assemblies or protests in Nigeria.
"The Police only issued advisory notice, enjoining citizens to apply
caution in the said rallies," the statement said. "Citizens are
strongly advised to reconsider their positions on the issues of rallies and
protests" given the current threats by militants.
The kidnapping crisis has highlighted Nigeria's failure to curb Boko Haram's
uprising.
Leadership newspaper on Tuesday quoted military officers saying the 15
allegedly found guilty of providing arms to Boko Haram are among many more
being tried at divisional level. The verdicts are being referred to defense
headquarters in Abuja, the capital, where the fate of the officers will be
decided, the newspaper said. The officers it quoted spoke on condition of
anonymity because they are not allowed to give information to reporters.
President Goodluck Jonathan said last year that he believed that some members
of the military and even of his own government, including some Cabinet
ministers, sympathized with Boko Haram or belonged to the group. Jonathan in
January fired his entire military command and weeks later replaced the defense
minister.
His government and military have been harshly criticized for lack of action
that has led to the schoolgirls' prolonged captivity. Defense chief Air Marshal
Alex Badeh said last week the military knows where
they are being held but fears to use force as it could get the girls killed.
Jonathan is under increasing pressure to make a deal with the insurgents, who
are demanding he free detained fighters in return for the girls.
Christian Leaders in Nigeria Call Bauchi
Violence Premeditated
Numerous weapons and mercenaries point to plans
awaiting a triggering incident, they say.
By Obed Minchakpu
ChristianNewsToday.com
TAFAWA BALEWA, Nigeria, – Christian
leaders in Bauchi state said religious violence here sparked by a row over a
billiards table on Jan. 27 bore signs that Muslim extremists were prepared for
a large-scale slaughter of Christians.
Initially authorities said only 18 people were
killed after sectarian violence erupted in the areas of Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro, where there are large Christian populations in
predominantly Muslim Bauchi state in northern Nigeria. Since then, estimates
have ranged wildly from 25 to 96 people killed over a three-day period starting
Jan. 27, with Christian leaders asserting that Muslim extremists used the
billiards table incident as a pretext for unleashing attacks with a stockpile
of weapons hidden in mosques.
As early as Feb. 1, Bauchi Commissioner of
Police Mohammed Indabawa said at a press conference
that 25 bodies had been recovered in a joint security operation in Tafawa
Balewa and Bogoro, with 38 people arrested. Shortly
thereafter, a local legislator in the Bauchi House of Assembly, Aminu Tukur,
told journalists that 31 bodies had been recovered and were buried in the area.
Subsequently Luka Chongda,
chairman of the Sayawa Development Association, a
community Non-Governmental Organization in Tafawa Balewa, reportedly said 96
people had died in the violence. He cited data collated from affected areas in
both Bogoro and Tafawa Balewa four days after the
Jan. 27 incident.
Christian leaders in Tafawa Balewa told Compass
that triggering incident – in which a Muslim was said to have burned a
billiards table belonging to a Christian, prompting youths from Christian
families to burn mosques and Muslim homes – led to the emergence of Muslim
weapons caches and Islamist mercenaries. Islamists had made preparations for
attacks in the areas with large Christian populations, the Christian leaders
said, and were awaiting a pretext for carrying them out.
The Rev. Ibrahim Ezekiel of the Church of
Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) in Tafawa Balewa told Compass that Muslims in Bauchi
state have tried to eliminate the Christian communities in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro since violence first erupted in 1991.
“The Muslims have been attacking us, and the
government of Bauchi state knows this,” Ezekiel said. “Yet the government has
given these Muslims the backing to attack us. They want to exterminate the
Christian communities here, and that is the reason they are supporting the
attacks on us.”
Ezekiel, pastor of a COCIN congregation in
Maryam, a suburb of Tafawa Balewa, said that area Muslims “used a lot of
weapons to attack our people” that were stockpiled in mosques. Apart from the
use of guns and other weapons to attack Christians, Ezekiel said area Islamists
brought in Muslim mercenaries.
“They brought in mercenaries to attack us,” he
said. “They label Christians here as infidels who must be dealt with. The
Muslims are the aggressors – they killed our people and burned their houses.
Christians who were helpless had no choice than to fight back and defend their
families.”
Armed Muslims as young as 15 years old shot
Christians they encountered, Ezekiel said. Christian youths seeking revenge for
the billiards table incident stoked the violence until security forces could
contain them and their Muslim counterparts; the pastor said 47 Christians have
been arrested, with 27 of them charged.
The violence that erupted in the only two local
council areas with large Christian populations in Bauchi state led to
significant property destruction that is as yet unknown in monetary terms. In
addition, according to community leader Chongda, the
violence displaced 800 families, with many of those yet to return.
Among Christians in Tafawa Balewa whose bodies
have been recovered and buried are Pastor Bitrus Dangana of the Evangelical Church Winning All; Haruna Ayuba; Dima Apollos; Promise Isaac; Mama Likita Dadi; and Irimiya Mainama. Also killed were
Christians identified only as Emmanuel in the Sabon Layi
area of Tafawa Balewa; Godiya; and Gambo, a butcher
in Maryam.
Abubakar Adamu, an
official of the Red Cross Society in Bauchi, confirmed that the incident had
displaced about 5,000 persons. The Red Cross was treating many of the wounded
and burned, he said.
Ramat Kure of Maryam village told Compass that
the violence in Tafawa Balewa was the fourth outbreak since 1991.
“The religious crisis in the area has remained
unresolved because the Christian community is being oppressed by Muslims in the
state,” he said. “The incessant religious conflicts in the area are as a result
of deliberate policy of marginalization and persecution targeted at Christians
by the Muslim political leaders in the state.”
Kure said he witnessed the killing of 10
Christians in Tafawa Balewa on Jan. 27.
Areas hit by the violence were Angwan Sarki village, Angwan Madaki, Arewa, Sabon Layi, and Bauchi-Dass Road. Muslims reportedly barricaded the Bauchi Dass Highway, pulling dozens of Christians from their
vehicles and killing them.
Pastor Yunnana Yusuf
of the COCIN Centre in Tafawa Balewa said he was in his home within the church
compound on Jan. 27 when he heard shouting around the market square.
“I came out only to see people throwing stones
at each other and, on inquiring, I was told that there was a fight going on
between Muslims and Christians,” he told Compass. “In no time, I heard
gunshots. As I came out, I saw one Alhaji Maigida and
another Muslim by the name of Alhaji Maishayi, about
a hundred meters away, distributing guns to some Muslims, and they began
shooting. Instantly, I saw three Christians being shot. It was this that
triggered the incident, and within a short time, the entire town and
surrounding villages were attacked and razed by Muslim attackers.”
The dispute between the Muslim billiards player
and the Christian pool table owner was reportedly settled by mediation of area
elders on Jan. 26, but Muslims later burned the table, prompting Christian
youths to burn 50 houses and five mosques, according to police commissioner Indabawa.
Vatican says pope saddened about violence
against Nigerian Christians
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged security officers to restore
peace and the rule of law in Nigeria after violence against Christians left up
to 50 people dead, including a Catholic priest.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, said in a telegram
sent to church and government officials in Nigeria that the pope was
"saddened to learn of the tragic consequences of the recent violent
protests in northern Nigeria."
A Muslim protest against a series of European cartoons offensive to Islam,
originally published in Denmark, proceeded peacefully Feb. 18 in the city of
Maiduguri, capital of Nigeria's Borno state.
But after the demonstration, armed men took to the streets, setting afire churches, homes and businesses owned by Christians.
Some 50 people, reportedly all Christians, were killed in the blazes or by
their attackers, said Bishop Matthew Ndagoso of Maiduguri.
The papal telegram, which the Vatican released to journalists Feb. 21, said the
pope was praying for all those affected by the violence, especially those who
had been killed and their loved ones.
The pope made special mention of Father Michael Gajere,
the Nigerian priest who died inside a burning parish compound after staying
behind to save a group of altar boys from attackers.
The pope called on all those "involved in providing security ... to ensure
peace and to promote the rule of law for which all people of good will
long," the telegram said.
Speaking to Catholic News Service by
phone Feb. 21 from Maiduguri, Bishop Ndagoso said the
church and local Christians are questioning why no adequate security was
provided for the Feb. 18 demonstration.
He said there was "no visible police presence" when fires started in
different parts of the city as soon as demonstrators dispersed from the city's
main square at 10 a.m.
Government "agencies gave permission for this demonstration, but they know
demonstrations in our country often turn violent, and so they should have taken
adequate security measures," he said.
He said police only came on the scene "after the damage had been done. To
us, this shows the complicity on the part of the government."
The bishop said in addition to those killed, hundreds were injured, and 40
church buildings were destroyed. Among them were four Catholic churches and the
bishop's house.
"My house is burned completely down, even the walls have fallen
down," Bishop Ndagoso said. He said he was away
at a seminar the morning the violence broke out, "otherwise I would have
been caught there" in the burning home.
Father Gajere was the diocesan justice and peace
director and helped dig wells and build dams for the surrounding Muslim
communities, the bishop said. Born locally in 1964, the priest was ordained in
1992 and always worked in the same diocese.
Bishop Ndagoso said the priest was with about eight
altar boys inside the rectory when the church next door was set ablaze. The
priest faced the attackers as they stormed the rectory, and he urged them to
not cause anyone any harm, said the bishop.
"When he realized the flames were closing in, he told the kids to run and
they jumped the wall" surrounding church compound, the bishop told CNS.
The priest stayed behind "to persuade the attackers to do nothing, but
instead he paid the supreme price" with his death.
"The situation is still very tense. Even though people are going about
their business, there is an uneasy calm," he said.
While some have suggested criminals or local hoodlums were responsible for
transforming the peaceful demonstration into an inferno, Bishop Ndagoso said one "cannot rule out religious
motives."
"It has clearly religious undertones, because why would they only burn
Christian businesses, homes and churches?" he asked.
The northern Nigerian state of Borno is more than 60
percent Muslim. There are about a half million Christians in a state of 3.5
million people, the bishop said.
He said the government listed the official death toll at 15 in an effort to
minimize the severity of the incident and prevent outbreaks of retaliatory
violence in the city and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the apostolic nuncio in Nigeria, Archbishop Renzo Fratini, told the Vatican missionary news agency, Fides,
that he believes there was "no specific hatred against Catholics in
Nigeria" and that the latest violence "had little to do with
religion."
He said there have been tensions between Muslims and all Christians, not just
Catholics, but that political unrest may have been the trigger in Maiduguri,
since protesters were also contesting a proposed constitutional amendment that
would allow Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, to run for a
third term.
Lands Drenched in Innocent Blood: Boko Haram
Declares War Against Christians
By
Deacon Keith Fournier
3/9/2012
Catholic Online
A spokesman for Boko Haram
announced on Thursday they are planning a
"war on Christians". They told a local reporter
it would occur in the "next few weeks". The spokesman said the
group "will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan
to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country. We will create so
much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic
state that the Christians won't be able to stay." The blood of the martyrs
seems to be flowing more frequently these days as militant Islamic terrorism
increases.
ABUA,Nigeria (Catholic Online) - On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, six armed men killed a
customs official, a five year old boy and at least two others. They did so
intentionally and in cold blood. They did so in the name of Allah.
They set fire to a police
station, a government building and two churches, one Catholic and one belonging
to the Christian Brethren. They blew up vehicles, motorcycles and terrorized a
town for three hours - all, once again, in the name of Allah.
This Islamist group has been
terrorizing northern Nigeria for two years. They claimed responsibility for
their evil and horrific behavior without any remorse or regret. On Thursday,
March 8, 2012, they also killed a British and an Italian hostage. None of the
reports indicated how the murders occurred but, the track record of similar
Jihadis points to beheadings. We have only to remember Danny Pearl. In fact, we
MUST remember Danny Pearl!
The President of Nigeria,
Goodluck Jonathan, properly condemned the murders. The two victims were
innocent engineers who had been taken by these evil Islamists in May of 2011.
Efforts to negotiate for their release were unsuccessful. So too were efforts
to rescue them. Their families are in mourning and we should pray for them.
We reported on the horrible
bombing outside of St Theresa's Catholic Church on Christmas Day. That evil
act, perpetrated by these Islamic terrorists who proudly refer to themselves as
the "Nigerian Taliban," was followed by an ultimatum issued to
Christians in Northern Nigeria to leave in three days or face further violence.
A spokesman for "Boko
Haram" told reporters "our Muslim brothers
are advised to return to the north, because we have evidence that they will be
attacked. We also issue a three-day ultimatum to the southerners living in the
north of Nigeria, to leave. We have serious indications to suggest that the
soldiers only kill the innocent Muslims in areas where government has declared
a state of emergency. We will face them decisively to protect our
brothers."
That was nonsense. There have
been no attacks on Muslims in Nigeria. In fact, some Muslims who properly
reject the violence of this evil group have been victim of their terror. The
phrase "Boko Haram" means "Western education is forbidden"
in the Hausa language. These Islamist terrorists hate all things
"western" and Christian. They are Jihadiss
who have expressed their intention to forcibly establish an Islamic Caliphate
and impose Shariah Law on everyone.
They are also called
al-Sunnah wal Jamma
- or "Followers of the Prophet's Teachings". They refer to themselves
officially as Jama'atu Ahlis
Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad,
which means "people committed to the propagation of the prophet's
teachings and Jihad". They are murderers and terrorists who use an appeal
to religion to attempt to justify evil.
After the Christmas
bombings, a spokesman claimed responsibility in an interview with a local
newspaper called The Daily Trust saying "There will never be peace, until
our demands are met. We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be
released; we want full implementation of the Sharia system and we want
democracy and the constitution to be suspended."
The terrorist group issued a
three-day ultimatum for Christians to leave the North of Nigeria and has called
for all Muslims living in the South to move North. They have signaled their
intention to fight government troops and to expand their violent attacks
against Christians and others who resist their Jihad.
After the Christmas bombing
Vatican Radio reported that Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama
of Jos, the Vice President of the Nigerian Bishop's Conference, urged Nigerians
to not to allow their country to be overtaken by terror: "Churches have
been destroyed and lives were lost and there is no sign that this might end,
until the government intervenes decisively."
"We continue to ask
Christians to be vigilant and aware of the issue of safety when they go to
church and even in their own homes. We have appealed that there be no
retaliation and we continue to preach peace, hoping that all of us in Nigeria,
Muslims and Christians, we will be able to work and live happily together. This
is our position: no violence, no retaliation. We want to live in peace".
Sadly, these evil Jihadists have no
such desire.
Archbishop Kaigama
added, "We continue to appeal to reason, for dialogue. It is possible for
Muslims and Christians to reason together. We know that there are other forces
behind the so-called Boko Haram. We do not even know who the Boko Haram really
are, what they want, where they get their arms from. What is certain is that
there are some forces behind them, either in Nigeria or abroad, who want to
profit from instability in our country, but we will not give in to terrorism,
we will not allow these fundamentalists to ruin our country".
On the day after Christmas, the
Feast of St Stephen the Deacon and Proto - Martyr, a visibly burdened Pope
Benedict XVI spoke to the faithful gathered for the Angelus prayer. He spoke
from his heart, urging prayers for those whose, "lands are drenched in
innocent blood."
The Pope reminded the faithful
that St Stephen gave his life for his Christian faith. He
spoke of his heroic witness, noting that even as he was being stoned to death
he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" and begged forgiveness for
his accusers. He extolled the witness of the early martyrs of the Church, a
topic which he has frequently addressed in the last few years.
Father Federico Lombardi,
director of the Holy See Press Office said in a statement, "Regretfully
the attacks at the Church of Saint Theresa in Abuja, timed to coincide with
Christmas Day celebrations, are once again the expression of the cruelty of
blind and absurd hatred devoid of any respect for human life and represent an
attempt to generate and fuel further hatred and confusion."
"We express our closeness to
the suffering of the Church and of all the Nigerian people who have been
affected by violent terrorism even during these days that should be of joy and
peace," he added. "While we pray for the victims, we also express the
hope that this senseless violence will not weaken the will for peaceful
cohabitation and dialogue in the nation."
The word "Martyr"
derives from a Greek word which means "witness." The Catholic faith
proclaims that the shedding of one's blood in fidelity to Jesus Christ is the
final witness to the Faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us
that:
"Martyrdom is the supreme
witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto
death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is
united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian
doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude" (CCC #2471 - 2473)
What is happening to our brethren
in Nigeria - Christian martyrdom at the hands of militant Jihadist Islamists -
must not be overlooked. The threat of such violent, evil, Jihadism is not
decreasing. If anything, it is increasing. For someone who remembers the cold
war, even to the point of drills where we hid under our desks, it calls to mind
the great need for a National resolve. It makes
the threat of militant Marxism look mild in comparison.
The victims of this evil are
often being killed precisely because they are Christians. The blood of the
martyrs seems to be flowing more frequently these days as militant Islamic
terrorism increases and establishes a new beachhead in Africa. For Catholics
and other Christians, we cannot - we must not- fail to act. Africa is one of
the great centers of the renewal of the Church in the Third Millennium. We are
living in a new missionary age.
The words attributed to
Tertullian in the Second Century of the Church still hold out their promise:
"The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church." We are
living in a new missionary age. Pray for our brethren in Africa. Also,
understand the implications of the evil designs of these Jihadists. They hate
us. If you want to read a source which "pulls no punches" in their
reporting on this growing threat, read Jihad Watch. (http://www.jihadwatch.org/)
A spokesman for Boko Haram
announced on Thursday they are planning a
"war on Christians". They told a local reporter
it would occur in the "next few weeks." The spokesman
said the group "will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of
the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country. We will
create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a
proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be able to stay."
Brits Warned As Nigeria Death Toll Hits 178
VOICE OF AMERICA
1-29-2011
Britons are being warned against
travelling to parts of Nigeria as the death toll from a series of terror
attacks rose to 178.
Radical Islamist group Boko Haram
has claimed responsibility for bombings in the northern city of Kano.
Witnesses have described seeing
dozens of bodies piled up outside the main morgue after attacks at police
stations, state buildings and on streets, beginning on Friday afternoon.
Authorities enforced a 24-hour
curfew in the city, with many people remaining home as soldiers and police
patrolled the streets and set up roadblocks.
The Foreign Office updated its
travel advice for the African country, advising against travel to Kano.
The FCO website said: "We
advise against all travel to Kano whilst the curfew remains in force and for
those in Kano to remain vigilant and to exercise caution.
"DFID (Department for
International Development) and British Council have limited their operations in
Kano whilst the curfew is in place."
An official at the city's main
morgue said dead bodies had been arriving since Friday night.
Soldiers and police officers
swarmed throughout the city as the death toll rose.
Boko Haram is campaigning to
implement strict Sharia law across Nigeria, a multi-ethnic nation of more than
160 million people.
The assaults were apparently in
response to a refusal by authorities to release their members from custody.
The group, whose name means
"Western education is sacrilege", was responsible for at least 510
killings last year alone.
Police spokesman Olusola Amore
said attackers targeted five police buildings, two immigration offices and the
local headquarters of Nigeria's secret police.
The Nigerian Red Cross said
volunteers continued to offer first aid to the wounded and take the seriously
injured to local hospitals.
Ramadan violence erupts in Nigeria
By
Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
8/30/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Ongoing violence in Nigeria has claimed
the lives of at least nine people in Nigeria. Clashes between Christians and
Muslims in the divided country are common and the latest round of violence
occurred as Muslims were ending their celebration of Ramadan.
ABUJA, NIGERIA (Catholic Online) -
The country of 155 million people is 50 percent Muslim and 40 percent Christian
with a remaining 10 percent following tribal belief systems. This divide has
led to bloody clashes between Christians and Muslims who want the country to
respect their religious beliefs and reflect their perspective on the nature of
government. Notably, several Muslims have gained attention called for the
imposition of Sharia law penalties, such as stoning for adultery, in Muslim
areas.
The most recent violence took
place in the city of Jos, northeast of the capital. Reportedly, a gang of armed
Christian youths attacked Muslim worshippers. In addition to the dead, over 100
were reported injured. Dozens of cars were burned.
Trapping the Muslims with
roadblocks, the gang is reported to have used guns, machetes, rocks, and arrows
to perpetrate their violence. As many as 20 children may be among the dead.
Hospitals reported filling up with the wounded who mostly suffered wounds from
thrown objects.
Allegedly, Christian
"gangsters" then told witnesses the attacks were revenge for Muslim
bombings that took place on Christmas Eve of 2010.
This violence is added to the
recent string of attacks from Muslim extremists who are rebelling against the
Nigerian government from strongholds in the northern part of the country. On
Friday, that group detonated a bomb at UN offices in the capital, Abuja. The
attack killed 23 people.
Generally, Nigeria remains
peaceful as the different religious groups coexist in separate parts of the
country, with Muslims dominating the north and Christians in the south.
However, periodic bouts of violence can last for months as each side makes
reprisals against the other for previous attacks.
Nigerian President Goodluck
Jonathan has condemned both acts of violence as his government struggles to
maintain peace in the sometimes bitterly divided country.
Christians targeted in fatal stealth attacks
Muslim
terrorists implicated in multiple murders
August 13, 2011
WorldNetDaily
By Michael Carl
There's no pattern and little
evidence, but periodically, and without warning, another Christian is shot or
stabbed – almost always fatally – in the Nigerian town of Maiduguri.
Experts on the persecution of
Christians in that part of the world say the Nigerian Muslim terrorist group
Boko Haram has been implicated in the murders, which have happened
intermittently in the Christians' own homes.
Open Doors USA President Carl
Moeller says Boko Haram's motive for the killings is simple: The Muslim group
wants to take over in the north.
"As we know, one of the
goals of Boko Haram is to create a Shariah, Islamic law, society in Nigeria.
Their intentional use of this sort of terroristic activity is designed to
further their ends of that," Moeller explained.
"Our co-workers in the city
have said basically [Boko Haram] continues to use attacks to disrupt the public
peace and have people literally flee, particularly the Christians, flee from
these cities," Moeller said.
Moeller said the violence is
highly organized and has a very clear objective.
"It's more specifically
something like religiocide or religious cleansing.
They recognize no other possibility of society based on anything other than
Shariah law," Moeller said.
International Christian Concern
analyst Jonathan Racho agrees that the group wants to
establish Islamic law in the north. He also says that while Boko Haram pushes
Shariah, they also try to win influence by portraying Christianity as a
"foreign religion."
"Their strict interest in
Shariah law is why they look at Christians and say Christians promote Western
ideas and are opposed to the Islamic way of life," Racho
said.
But Racho
added that Boko Haram has an even more sinister purpose.
"One of their goals is to
eliminate Christianity," Racho said.
Moeller agrees that one of Boko
Haram's objectives is to eliminate Christianity from Nigeria. He also says the
group's level of extremism pits them against the government of Nigeria.
"They're at odds with the
government of Nigeria and other parts of Nigeria where even moderate Muslims
would admit the presence of Christianity. Boko Haram is truly one of those
groups that wants to see Christianity eliminated from the country of
Nigeria," Moeller said.
Racho added that Christians aren't Boko
Haram's only target.
"Even moderate Muslims have
been killed by this group," he said.
Racho added that there's one feature of the
current series of attacks that sets it apart from other acts of anti-Christian
violence.
"They kill a Christian and
after a few days they kill another Christian. After a few days they kill
another Christian. We don't know how long it's going to continue. We are really
alarmed by these killings," Racho said.
Moeller agreed that Boko Haram is
using fear as a weapon on the region's Christians.
"There's a great deal of
ongoing tension and Boko Haram continues to exploit and play on the fears of
people in the area," Moeller said.
Moeller also believes that many
Americans don't understand the dynamics of Nigeria's religious rivalry.
"The question of motivations
is almost lost on us in America because we don't really grasp the intensity of
the religious hatred that goes on in the division between [Muslim] northern and
[Christian] southern Nigeria," Moeller explained.
While both Moeller and Racho agree that the aim of the terror campaign is to force
Christians out of northern Nigeria, Racho believes
the one-at-a-time method has another purpose.
"This campaign is carefully
organized to avoid media attention. That's why they're not burning down houses
or villages. They're very systematic, and they don't want the media attention.
They're succeeding in sowing fear in many of the Christians and many have
already left their homes," Racho stated.
Moeller said the terrorist group
is more than willing to take advantage of the departure of more Christians.
"They move in where
Christians have vacated and take over the social and political control of that
area," Moeller said.
Moeller added that the terror
group has its sights on the predominantly Christian southern half of the
country as well. He saaid that's especially tragic
because of the growth of the Christian church in the south.
"The southern part of that
country is one of the most vital, powerful, growing churches in all the world.
So, this is a formula for an extreme amount of confrontation, violence and
death in the area," Moeller said.
Racho said Nigerian security forces have
moved into the northern area in an attempt to restore order.
Moeller added that the government
is attempting to prosecute the perpetrators when they are able to find and
capture them. However, he said Nigeria's Christian president Goodluck Jonathan
is acting to avoid the appearance of showing favoritism to Christians.
"He has to promote general
peace because extremists in his country would exploit any support that he would
show to Christians as confirming their inaccurate statements that the president
is actually trying to eliminate Islam from the country," Moeller stated.
One of the government's responses
to the terror attacks is to send a six-man fact-finding mission to Borno state, but even with the fact-finding mission,
Moeller believes the government's options are limited.
"I can clearly see the
connection between what Boko Haram is trying to do and that the way the
government's hands are somewhat tied," Moeller said. "If Boko Haram
stops its attacks, then the government is able to restore public order."
Moeller added that the government
has some tough choices if Boko Haram continues its terror campaign.
"When they (the group)
continue to provide more fuel for terrorism and more terroristic activities
then the government has to be cautious in its response to that. Otherwise, the
government will provide justification for the Boko Haram message. It's a very
precarious situation for the government there," Moeller explained.
The Nigerian clash between
Muslims and Christians is just one of many similar confrontations going on
across Africa.
There are reports nearly half a
million people, including many Christians, have been driven from their homes in
Ivory Coast following the internationally sanctioned installation of a Muslim
as president.
Other clashes have been reported
in Kenya and Egypt.
WND recently has reported that
Egyptian Christians say they are under siege following the Muslim Brotherhood's
integration into power.
Reports document attacks by armed
gangs on about 60 Coptic Christians during a protest at a national television
headquarters and suggest that the Egyptian army has been part of the
aggression.
Christians have been demanding
without success that the government prosecute the perpetrators of the attack and
the burning of the Mar Mina church in the Cairo neighborhood of Imbabba on May 8.
A dozen people were killed and
more than 200 were injured there.
Egyptian human rights activist and
journalist Wagih Yacoub was an eyewitness to the
violence and describes the assault on Christians as an ambush.
"The army left. They were
not there and they did nothing after the attacks. Other criminals came and
attacked the Christians. We asked for the rescue and the army came after a few
hours," Yacoub related.
In Kenya, President Obama
campaigned for the Muslim challenger, Raila Odinga,
while Obama was a U.S. senator.
Appearing with Odinga at campaign
stops, Obama gave speeches accusing the sitting Kenyan president of being
corrupt and oppressive.
But Odinga lost, despite
attracting Muslim votes through a secret Memorandum of Understanding with
Muslim Sheik Abdullah Abdi, the chief of the National Muslim Leaders Forum of
Kenya. In the memo, Odinga promised to rewrite the Kenyan constitution to
install Shariah as law in "Muslim declared regions," elevate Islam as
"the only true religion" and give Islamic leaders
"oversight" over other religions, establish Shariah courts and ban
Christian proselytism.
After his loss, Odinga accused
the incumbent president of rigging the vote and allegedly incited his
supporters to riot. Over the next month, some 1,500 Kenyans were killed and
more than 500,000 displaced – with most of the violence led by Muslims, who set
churches ablaze and hacked Christians to death with machetes.
Odinga eventually ended up as
prime minister of Kenya through a power-sharing arrangement that was enacted in
an effort to appease the rioters.
Churches bombed and Christians attacked as violence spreads in Nigeria
March
23, 2011, (PCTV Newsdesk)
Churches bombed and Christians
attacked as violence spreads in Nigeria ahead of Presidential elections. Police
warn worship areas are targets. Fears that jihad has been launched to create
chaos and force state of emergency. Archbishop of Jos fears city could be
overrun.
There are warnings that growing
violence in Nigeria is being instigated by extremists who want to stir up
religious violence and create a state of emergency ahead of the Presidential
elections. The Archbishop of Jos fears the city could be overrun and is calling
for increased security.
A blast on Sunday killed two
suspected bombers, but failed to catch the churchgoers for which it was
probably intended. In other attacks in Jos three Christians were killed and six
stabbed.
These are just the latest in a
series of attacks which have claimed hundreds of lives over the past year. A
partner of Release International, which serves persecuted Christians, believes
the aim behind the attacks is to whip up sectarian violence ahead of the April
elections.
The Stefanos Foundation points to
a newspaper statement calling for jihad allegedly published by a Jos Muslim
Elders Forum on December 30 2010 – days after the latest round of violence
erupted.
It said: ‘Muslims in the State
shall ensure that a few months before General Elections jihad will be declared
in the State, which cannot be controlled even by security agencies, with great
slaughter and massacre, which the Federal Government will have no option than
to declare a State of Emergency in Plateau.’
‘We’re deeply concerned about
these latest attacks,’ says Release CEO Andy Dipper. ‘The continuing targeting
of Christians appears to be a deliberate move to provoke a backlash and
sectarian violence – an attempt to destabilise the
community ahead of the elections. Release urges Nigeria’s Christians to stay
vigilant, but to refuse to be drawn into a spiral of violence.’
Archbishop of Jos, the Most Rev
Dr Benjamin Kwashi told Release: ‘No-one is willing
to accept that the Christian church is under attack. It is difficult for people
to understand that Jos could be overrun. The government has been negligent, and
the world will not help.’
He acknowledged that some
Christians had been driven to defend themselves and were in danger of being
drawn into a spiral of violence.
‘Even the Muslims are not safe –
though we have been working very hard to keep them safe in our area of town.
‘Revenge I will never support.
But those who wish to defend themselves, I cannot stop. People have had enough
of this. It’s been going on for 30 years. The government must do more to
provide security for everybody.
‘But you know, the only real
answer is prayer. I trust God to defend us. I have been threatened with death
personally three times. In all three times, the Lord has rescued me.’
There were two failed bomb
attacks against churches on Sunday. Release has been told the bombers may have
been trying to get round heightened security by targeting worshippers as they
were walking home.
The likely targets were members
of the Church of Christ In Nigeria (COCIN) and of the
Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Nasawara Gwom, a mainly Christian district of Jos, in Nigeria’s
central Plateau State. It’s been reported that two prominent Christian
politicians were attending the services.
According to reports men rode
into the area on a motorcycle. Witnesses say they dropped the bomb, which
exploded, killing them and damaging a nearby shop. An angry crowd turned on
another motorcyclist who was acting suspiciously, and killed him. It’s not
known whether he was, in fact, another bomber, or a passer-by caught up in the
ensuing panic.
Tensions had been heightened by
earlier warnings in Jos that bomb attacks against churches were likely.
Despite increased security in
advance of next month’s Presidential elections militants managed to plant a
second bomb on Sunday behind the headquarters of the Mountain of Fire and
Miracle Ministry. This was discovered and made safe.
According to Nigerian media
reports many churches ended their services early after the bomb blast rang out.
But Release partners deny reports that Christians are fleeing the city. ‘People
are concerned,’ says a spokesman for the Stefanos Foundation, ‘but they are
also very security conscious. Besides, they have lived here all their lives –
where would they go?’
Police routinely search worship
areas before services, but the approach taken by the motorcycle bombers on
Sunday may have been to circumvent that. Commissioner of Police Abdelrahaman Akano told the
Nigerian News Service, ‘We are not neglecting the fact that worship areas are
targets.’
Sectarian violence has been
increasing in Nigeria during the build-up to the elections on April 9. Last
week security forces intercepted a truck load of explosives and ammunition in
Jos.
Plateau state is on the dividing
line between the predominantly Muslim north and the Christian south of the
country. There is a history of conflict between different ethnic groups in the
region vying for control of fertile land.
In March 2010, militants
massacred more than 500 Christians near Jos. Bomb attacks followed on Christmas
Eve, attributed to an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which means ‘Western
education is sinful’.
On March 13, Boko Haram claimed responsibility
for murdering a moderate Muslim cleric in Maiduguri, Borno
State, who had been advocating non-violence.
Meanwhile in Bauchi state, there
are reports that upwards of 4,000 people have been driven from their homes
after night attacks by armed Fulani that began on March 10. Christian
Solidarity Worldwide reports the attackers burnt down 13 churches in villages,
along with upwards of 450 homes. The militants, numbering around 2,000, are
said to be wearing police uniforms.
Bauchi and Borno
states have imposed Islamic Shari’a law – despite
Nigeria having a secular constitution. Christians in both states have been
driven from their homes.
Nigeria Arrests 164 Over Massacre
Voice of
America
21 March 2010
A Nigerian
police spokesman says 164 people have been arrested for alleged involvement in
violence near the town of Jos earlier this month that killed more than 200
people.
The spokesman said Sunday that 41 of those arrested will be charged with
terrorism, which could result in life in prison.
The others, he said, will be charged with illegal possession of firearms,
rioting and other offenses.
Witnesses to the March 7 violence said that ethnic Fulani herdsmen, who are
Muslim, attacked mainly Christian villages south of Jos, setting homes on fire
and slashing people with knives and machetes.
The U.N. special investigator on freedom of religion has said the massacre
could have been prevented had authorities addressed deep-seated tensions
between Muslims and Christians.
Jos has a history of sectarian violence. The city sits on the dividing
line between Nigeria's mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.
TIMELINE:
Ethnic and religious unrest in Nigeria
Thu
Jul 30, 2009
(Reuters) - Security forces in northern Nigeria on Thursday battled the
remnants of an Islamic sect following days of unrest which have killed more
than 180 people and displaced thousands.
Following is a timeline of major religious and ethnic violence in Nigeria, a
country divided into at least 200 ethnic groups and about evenly split between
Muslims and Christians:
2000 - Thousands killed in northern Nigeria as non-Muslims opposed to the
introduction of Islamic sharia law fight Muslims who demand its implementation
in the northern state of Kaduna.
September 2001 - Christian-Muslim violence flares after Muslim prayers in Jos,
with churches and mosques set on fire. According to a September 2002 report by
a panel set up by Plateau state government, at least 915 people are killed in
days of rioting.
November 2002 - Nigeria decides to abandon the Miss World contest in Abuja. At
least 215 people die in rioting in the northern city of Kaduna following a
newspaper article suggesting the Prophet Mohammad would probably have married
one of the Miss World beauty queens if he were alive today.
May 2004 - Hundreds of people, mostly Muslim Fulanis,
are killed by Christian Tarok militia in the central
Nigerian town of Yelwa. Survivors say they buried 630 corpses. Police say
hundreds were killed.
-- Muslim and Christian militants fight bloody street battles later the same
month in the northern city of Kano. Christian community leaders say 500-600
people, mostly Christians, were killed in the two days of rioting by Muslims.
February 2006 - A week of rioting by Muslim and Christian mobs claims at least
157 lives. The violence begins in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, when a Muslim
protest against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad runs out of control.
Revenge attacks follow in the south.
November 2008 - Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs triggered by a
disputed local government chairmanship election kill at least 400 people in the
central city of Jos.
February 2009 - The governor of Bauchi state imposes a night-time curfew on
Bauchi city on February 22, a day after clashes kill at least 11 people. At
least 28 people were seriously wounded and several houses, churches and mosques
burned down.
July 2009 - Boko Haram, which means "education illegal," stages
attacks in the northeastern city of Bauchi on July 26 after the arrest of some
of its members. More than 50 people are killed and over 100 arrested, prompting
the Bauchi state governor to impose a night curfew on the state capital.
-- Boko Haram, which opposes Western education and demands the adoption of
sharia in all of Nigeria, threatens further attacks against security forces.
-- Police in Maiduguri, home of Boko Haram's leader Mohammed Yusuf, say
security forces killed 90 sect members on July 27. In neighboring Yobe state,
police recover the bodies of 33 sect members after a gun battle near the town
of Potiskum on July 29. Some 30 people also have died
in Kano.
Death toll over 300 in Nigerian sectarian violence
By AHMED SAKA
November 29, 2008
JOS, Nigeria (AP) — Mobs burned homes, churches
and mosques Saturday in a second day of riots, as the death toll rose to more
than 300 in the worst sectarian violence in Africa's most populous nation in
years.
Sheikh Khalid Abubakar, the imam at the city's
main mosque, said more than 300 dead bodies were brought there on Saturday
alone and 183 could be seen laying near the building waiting to be interred.
Those killed in the Christian community would
not likely be taken to the city mosque, raising the possibility that the total
death toll could be much higher. The city morgue wasn't immediately accessible
Saturday.
Police spokesman Bala
Kassim said there were "many dead," but
couldn't cite a firm number.
The hostilities mark the worst clashes in the
restive West African nation since 2004, when as many as 700 people died in
Plateau State during Christian-Muslim clashes.
Jos, the capital of Plateau State, has a long
history of community violence that has made it difficult to organize voting.
Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people.
The city is situated in Nigeria's "middle
belt," where members of hundreds of ethnic groups commingle in a band of fertile
and hotly contested land separating the Muslim north from the predominantly
Christian south.
Authorities imposed an around-the-clock curfew in
the hardest-hit areas of the central Nigerian city, where traditionally
pastoralist Hausa Muslims live in tense, close quarters with Christians from
other ethnic groups.
The fighting began as clashes between
supporters of the region's two main political parties following the first local
election in the town of Jos in more than a decade. But the violence expanded
along ethnic and religious fault lines, with Hausas and members of Christian
ethnic groups doing battle.
Angry mobs gathered Thursday in Jos after
electoral workers failed to publicly post results in ballot collation centers,
prompting many onlookers to assume the vote was the latest in a long line of
fraudulent Nigerian elections.
Riots flared Friday morning and at least 15
people were killed. Local ethnic and religious leaders made radio appeals for
calm on Saturday, and streets were mostly empty by early afternoon. Troops were
given orders to shoot rioters on sight.
The violence is the worst since the May 2007
inauguration of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who came to
power in a vote that international observers dismissed as not credible.
Few Nigerian elections have been deemed free
and fair since independence from Britain in 1960, and military takeovers have
periodically interrupted civilian rule.
More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in
sectarian violence since civilian leaders took over from a former military
junta in 1999. Political strife over local issues is common in Nigeria, where
government offices control massive budgets stemming from the country's oil
industry.
Nigeria: Muslim Violence Forces Christian
Withdrawal from Peace Talks
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
NIGERIA (ANS) -- Violence in Kaduna which has
claimed 1000 Christian lives and destroyed 63 churches just this year,
"must stop" says the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN),in a report from the U.K-based Barnabas Fund.
For three years, the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) has engaged in government-backed peace talks in the state of
Kaduna with its Muslim counterpart, Jamutu'ul Nasir
Islam (JNI). However, after the recent spate of attacks in which Islamic
militants burnt down nine churches in Makarfi, CAN
leaders say the peace process has been undermined.
As a result of the ongoing violence against
Christians, CAN withdrew from the talks April 9 saying, "If we continue to
dialogue with people when we doubt their sincerity and commitment to the peace
which we are honestly pursuing, then the consequences will be grave, to our
peril and enslavement."
North and Middle Belt Nigeria is plagued with frequent
outbreaks of rioting between Muslims and Christians. Over 10,000 have been
killed in such sectarian violence since 2000 when 12 Muslim-majority states in
North Nigeria adopted Islamic law (shari'a).
Nigeria tense after
clashes
6/10/2005 12:08 - (SA)
Sokoto - Despite the restoration of relative
peace in the Sokoto, Nigeria after three months of sectarian clashes, tension
still envelops the city as mutual resentment and suspicion between the two
feuding sects linger, residents said on Friday.
The clashes were between followers of rival
Shia and Sunni Muslim sects.
At least seven people were killed and 53 houses
were burnt or vandalised in the clashes that erupted
ostensibly over control of the central mosque but which faction leaders,
government officials and the police blame on politicians opposed to the state
government.
Shia sect spokesperson Sidi Mannir
said: "The attacks have stopped but we are not sure if the state
government will be able to arrest the masterminds of the attacks and punish
them, given their status and connections."
"Only the arrest and prosecution of the
masterminds of the attacks will ensure lasting peace because if the arrests are
limited to the thugs, the masterminds can recruit new squad from the army of
hooligans around," he added.
Following the arrest by the police of Umar Dan-Maishiyya, a Sunni cleric suspected of fuelling
the clashes, a Sunni mob went on rampage and burnt down a local government
secretariat in Sokoto which led to a police crackdown and arrests were made.
Heavy police presence
Police patrol vehicles have been combing the
dusty, refuse-littered streets since Friday, arresting thugs suspected of
involvement in the clashes with the help of local vigilantes and rival groups
did not participate in the violence.
"The vigilantes are only helping the
police to effect the arrests because they know every thug and where to find him.
They help our men access the deep recesses of the old city where the suspects
live," said Sokoto state police spokesperson Muhammad Umar Dakin-Gari.
Fear of revenge
The involvement of the vigilantes in the
clampdown on suspected trouble makers has been a source of concern to
inhabitants of the city who fear gang fights between rival groups once the
police are off the streets.
"My fear is the youths that have escaped
arrest may not take it lightly on their rivals who sold them out to the
authorities," Abdullahi Buhari, a civil servant, said while inspecting the
carcass of his car that was burnt along with 24 others when Sunni rioters set
the local government secretariat ablaze.
"The police operation has been hijacked by
thugs and vigilantes who have taken the law into their hands, terrorising opponents and innocent people in the name of
assisting the police. This could have a negative effect in the long run,"
said Sidi Alhaji.
The Shia followers view the formation of a
reconciliation committee of clerics and traditional chiefs by the Sokoto sultan
Muhammadu Maccido with distrust, alleging the
committee is made up of people who sponsored the violence.
Nigeria swings between bloodshed and harmony
11 Apr 2007
By Tume Ahemba
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, April 11 (Reuters) - Nnamdi
Okpala believes he still has a future in the northern Nigerian city of
Maiduguri despite being a victim of repeated bouts of ethnic and religious
violence.
Okpala is a Christian from the Ibo ethnic
group, a minority in Maiduguri where Muslims from the Kanuri group dominate. He
has lived and traded in the largely Islamic north for 21 years.
Last year, his shop was among dozens belonging
to Christian Ibos that were looted and torched during riots in which Muslim
mobs killed about 30 Christians.
"The crisis was the worst I have seen in
all my stay here. We had to run for our dear lives after the rioters overwhelmed
the police. By the time we came back, our shops had been looted and
burnt," said Okpala, sitting with a group of Ibo traders in front of a row
of shops, some still blackened by soot.
News of the killings in Maiduguri sparked
reprisal attacks in the Ibo heartland in the southeast. Christian mobs there
turned on northern Muslim traders, killing about 100 of them.
The Maiduguri riots and the tit-for-tat
violence in the southeast were typical of Nigeria's volatile mix of ethnic
diversity, religious rivalry and complex politics.
The ostensible cause of the riots was Muslim
anger over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. But many local people
said the violence was instigated by politicians because Maiduguri was scheduled
to host a public hearing about a plan to extend the president's tenure, which
was unpopular there.
Such eruptions of violence are not uncommon in
Nigeria, where human rights groups estimate at least 15,000 people have died in
religious or ethnic fighting since 1999 when elections returned Nigeria to
democracy after three decades of almost continuous army rule.
But that statistic belies a broader picture of
usually peaceful cohabitation in Nigeria, whose 140 million people are split
into about 250 ethnic groups and divided roughly equally between Muslims and
Christians.
Okpala said the violence, when it occurs, is
orchestrated by politicians and radical Islamic preachers who use ethnicity and
religion to manipulate people for their own cynical ends.
MUSLIM PRESIDENT
For now, he places his hope in the expected
election on April 21 of a northern Muslim to be the next president after eight
years of Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian and an ethnic Yoruba from the
southwest.
The two main candidates, Umaru Yar'Adua and Muhammadu Buhari, are both Muslim from Katsina
state in the north.
"These senseless killings will reduce when
a northerner is president because his Muslim brethren will see him as their own
man and won't want to cause trouble for his government," said Okpala.
Obasanjo is due to step down next month after
elections marking the first transition from one elected leader to another since
independence from Britain in 1960.
The major parties have nominated Muslim
flagbearers from the northern part of the country in the spirit of an unwritten
agreement by the political elite that the presidency alternates between the
north and the south.
"There is no cause for alarm because a
reasonable Muslim president may even be better than a bad Christian
president," said Reverend Nevin Mshelia,
secretary general of the Christian Association of Nigeria's branch in
Maiduguri.
Obasanjo has implemented economic reforms that
have won praise from Western powers and the private sector, but many
northerners feel they have exacerbated an economic imbalance between the south
and the poorer north.
"Obasanjo's government has empowered the
south and neglected the north," said Audu Maishanu, a 59-year-old car and real estate dealer,
sheltering under a tree from the scorching sun in Maiduguri, on the fringes of
the Sahel.
"You can hardly get petrol at any filling
station in the north. It has been so for eight years," he said, pointing
at a group of teenagers hawking fuel in jerrycans by the roadside.
Maishanu said: "Almost all
the textile industries in the north have shut down. Anyone that Allah chooses
as the next president will surely reverse all this."
Borno, where Maiduguri is
located, is one of 12 northern states that imposed provisions of Islamic sharia
law into the criminal justice system in 2000, a politically motivated move by
state governors that alienated Christians and sparked violence.
But in Maiduguri, residents of all ethnic and
religious backgrounds gather in the evenings at Wurali,
an area the size of a soccer field filled with shanties, to drink beer or local
gin despite sharia restrictions.
"Here there is no religion or ethnicity,
we are all united by Bacchus," said a senior Muslim police officer, asking
not to be named.
NIGERIA: Children dying needlessly from measles
and other preventable diseases
11 Jul 2007 20:00:07 GMT
Source: IRIN
LAGOS, 11 July 2007 (IRIN) - Measles is a
preventable disease yet when it strikes in Nigeria it finds a ready pool of
victims most of whom are children.
In June more than 50 children died while
another 400 were hospitalised in Nigeria's northeast Borno state following a measles outbreak.
The viral disease, transmitted both by air and
by bodily fluids, was first reported on 19 June in the village of Njimtilo in the outskirts of the Borno
state capital Maiduguri, and then quickly spread to five adjoining local areas
including Konduga, Jere, Damboa, Bama and
metropolitan Maiduguri.
Health officials have frequently blamed low immunisation rates for such outbreaks, as well as outbreaks
of polio, diphtheria and tuberculosis. A 2005 World Health Organisation
(WHO) survey found that 72 percent of measles cases in Nigeria occurred in
children under five years old, three-quarters of whom had not been immunised.
Measles can strike as much as 90 percent of an
un-immunised population.
Despite Nigeria's oil wealth only 12.7 percent of
children under five years old are fully immunised
against childhood diseases. That rate is among the lowest rates anywhere in the
world, according to WHO.
One reason for the low coverage, WHO says, is
the decrepit health services sector which lacks funding and proper
infrastructure and management.
Emeka Iwobi, a paediatric
doctor based in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, told IRIN that poverty and
ignorance also play a part. "Most of those who need [vaccines] are too
poor to afford them or may not know they need them,"
Some 70 percent of the population of 140
million lives on less than US $1 a day, many in unhygienic conditions that favour the spread of disease.
Most people often lack access to basic medical
care. Nigeria was 187th out of 191 countries in a WHO global ranking of
performance of health systems, coming ahead of only DR Congo, Central African
Republic, Myanmar and Sierra Leone.
The worst affected states in Nigeria are those
in the Muslim north. Immunisation efforts in the
region have suffered major setbacks because some radical Muslim preachers there
are suspicious of Western medicine. The preachers have claimed that the polio
vaccination programme was part of plot to reduce the
Muslim population.
In 2004 authorities in the mostly Muslim state
of Kano suspended polio vaccination for 10 months to conduct tests to determine
if the vaccines contained sterilising agents or the
AIDS virus, as critics had alleged.
In other parts of northern Nigeria communities
systematically boycotted efforts to immunise their
children.
"The polio boycott has had a ripple effect
on immunisation efforts of other childhood
diseases," said a senior official of the National Programme
on Immunisation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We can't make much progress unless we
overcome the negative perception," he said.
Nigerian Sunnis, Shiites
clash after cleric shot
The Associated Press
Published: July 19, 2007
SOKOTO, Nigeria: Clashes between Muslim
sects left at least one dead after the shooting of a popular cleric in northern
Nigeria, witnesses said Thursday. The cleric later died.
An Associated Press reporter saw the corpse of
one man who had been beaten to death by a mob after being accused in the
shooting of Sunni cleric Umar Danshiya, who is
well-known for his anti-Shiite sermons, at a mosque in the capital of the
desert state of Sokoto on Wednesday.
Nura Mohammed, who was
taking the cleric home by motorbike taxi, said that three gunmen on motorbikes
shot the cleric in the forehead after he finished leading a morning prayer.
The sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual head of
Nigeria's Muslims, announced on Thursday that Danshiya
had died that morning after lapsing into a coma. Sultan Mohammadu
Sa'ad Abubakar appealed for calm, saying on local
radio stations: "Do not take the law into your own hands ... the security
agencies are investigating."
The body was being washed in preparation for
burial in accordance with Islamic rites, the sultan said. At the news of Danshiya's death, several of his supporters cut branches
from the trees with machetes and fixed them to their vehicles, a common form of
protest in Nigeria.
Earlier, a mob of Danshiya's
followers wielding sticks and machetes attacked several Shiites in retaliation
for the attack on Danshiya. Nigerian soldiers and
police set up roadblocks and patrolled the streets on Thursday with rifles and
tear gas.
Nigeria's 140 million people are roughly
equally divided between Muslims and Christians. The country is the frequent
scene of ethnic and religious clashes. Thousands of people have been killed
since the end of military rule eight years ago. Residents say that ethnic or
political differences are often exploited by powerful local figures for
economic and political reasons.
Most Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, as are most
Muslims throughout the world. The Sunni-Shiite doctrinal split dates to the
early days of Islam, and tensions between the sects are not unusual.
Associated Press Writer Salisu
Rabiu contributed to this report from Kano, Nigeria