NIGERIA: Easter attacks - 80 Christians killed
29 Apr 2013Easter violence left 80 dead and 4,500 displaced. On Easter Sunday Muslim cattle herders attacked three Christian communities of the Ataka group in a remote area of Kaduna State. Authorities said fighting between Muslim cattle herders and Christian villages killed nearly 60 people in recent days. Following Sunday's violence thousands of villagers fled to the nearby hills. Local government estimated 4,500 people were displaced and two camps have been has set up to house them. Some who returned to assess the damage were also murdered according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Assailants razed several homes. Many displaced are staying in the local Primary School and in nearby villages. The latest violence came after 36+ people died and dozens of houses were burned in neighbouring Plateau State when ethnic Fulani Muslims raided Christian villages in Holy Week. The systematic manner in which these attacks now occur indicates a greater degree of organization than has previously been the case.
Pray: for the families of those who lost their lives and pray that the state governments will provide urgent assistance to the injured and displaced. (Ps.140:6-8)
Nigeria: Dozens killed in fresh attacks
06 Dec 2013About 40 people were killed in coordinated attacks on four Christian-dominated villages in the central Nigerian State of Plateau. Local sources contacted by World Watch Monitor report that the assailants, believed to be members of the Fulani tribe, came at around 2am on Tuesday morning, attacking the Berom communities in the villages of Katu Kapang, Daron, Tul and Rawuru. In a statement, Captain Salisu Mustapha, Media Officer of the government's Special Task Force (STF) in Jos, said the ‘attackers killed 13 persons in Katu Kapang, eight in Daron, nine in Tul and seven others in Rawuru. About five others were also reported to have sustained injuries’. Those killed included a one-year-old boy shot at close range, a four-year old and several women and other children, villagers told local media. The Chairman of the State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Soja Bewarang, condemned in ‘strong terms’ the ‘barbarous act’ in which pregnant women and children were killed.
Pray: that solutions will be found to stop the attacks of terrorists in Nigeria. (Dt.22:26)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/dozens.killed.in.fresh.attacks.in.central.nigeria/34862.htm
Nigeria: Deadly bombs condemned by World leaders
30 Dec 2011There is international condemnation of the Christmas Day bomb attacks in Nigeria that killed nearly forty. The White House said the attacks were ‘senseless violence', the British foreign secretary called them ‘cowardly.’ Islamist group Boko Haram said it carried out the attacks. A blast outside a church claimed 35 lives, a police officer died in the city of Jos and four people died in Damaturu. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said the attacks were an unwarranted affront on Nigeria’s collective safety and freedom. The White House said the attacks were ‘terrorist acts,’ and pledged to help Nigeria bring those responsible to justice. The German Foreign Minister said, ‘Even on Christmas Day, the world is not spared from cowardice and the fear of terrorism.’ Israel is sending medical aid to Nigeria and ‘condemned in the strongest terms these attacks carried out on Christmas Day.’
Pray: for Christians to be reassured and comforted, and pray that God will work through the international community and the Nigerian government to prevent further violence. (Ps.23:5-6)
More: http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2011/s11120116.htm
Nigeria: CSW calls for ‘urgent’ security review
24 Jul 2010
The head of Christian Solidarity Worldwide has called upon the Nigerian authorities to urgently review security arrangements for the volatile Plateau State after another deadly attack on Christians last Friday. Ten people, including children, are believed to have been killed in the attack on Mazah village by Fulani Muslims in the early hours of Friday morning. The attackers frightened villagers out of their homes by firing gun-shots before hacking them down with machetes as they attempted to flee. They also burned homes and churches to the ground. CSW said the attackers focused on important residents in the village, attacking the homes of the local councillor, the village head and a church leader. Villagers claim that although security forces arrived at the village in time to stop the attackers, they stood back and remained outside the village until the attack had come to an end before entering. Pray: that God would equip His saints and put His protection around them. (Eph.6:10-18)
Nigeria: Crackdown on Boko Haram
27 Sep 2012Nigerian forces have killed 35 suspected Boko Haram members in a crackdown on the insurgent group in the north eastern city of Damaturu, Yobe State the country's military says. ‘The Joint Task Force has succeeded in killing 35 Boko Haram terrorists in shootouts between Sunday evening through Monday,’ said Lieutenant Lazarus Eli, a military spokesman in Yobe, of which Damaturu is the capital. A round-the-clock curfew was imposed in the city late on Saturday, ahead of the operation that also led to the arrest of 60 suspected Boko Haram members. The curfew has been relaxed and residents are now allowed out of their homes from 7:00am to 10:00pm, Eli said. The ban on movements in Yobe's economic capital of Potiskum has also been eased. Military forces went door-to-door through three Damaturu neighbourhoods beginning late on Sunday and engaged militants in ‘a fierce exchange of gunfire’ through to the early hours of Monday morning, the spokesman added in a statement.
Pray: for success for the authorities as they seek to control the Boko Haram insurgents. (Pr.10:11)
More: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/09/2012924205430561216.html
Nigeria: Commerce and rural update
09 Jan 2014Nigeria was labelled a potential emerging economic giant by BBC Radio 4’s Today program’ when Evan Davis and Newsday's Nkem Ifejika interviewed entrepreneurs. However ‘the country still faced fundamental issues with an infrastructure that remains a problem to the nation's economy.’ Problems with power and electricity have been solved but education was still a problem with the entrepreneurs saying it was necessary for businesses to ‘invest in future staff’. They also added the corruption had become ‘a cultural thing’. Outside the cities thousands have died in tit-for-tat ethnic violence blamed on land disputes between semi-nomadic Muslim Fulani herdsmen and mainly Christian Berom farmers in zones where Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north meets its Christian-majority south. The most recent barbarism resulted in 30 dead, dozens of houses torched, cattle killed or taken away by Hausa-Fulani herdsmen in the Riyom area.
Nigeria: Church bombed in Bauchi
27 Sep 2012A suicide bomber has attacked a church in Bauchi, northern Nigeria, killing a woman and a child and injuring 48, according to the Red Cross. Police said the bomber's car was stopped at the gates of St John's Church where he detonated explosives packed inside the vehicle. Bauchi has often been targeted by the Islamist Boko Haram group, which wants to impose Sharia law across Nigeria. Sunday attacks on churches took place regularly earlier this year. Doctors in Bauchi warned that many of the injuries were serious and the death toll could rise. Speaking at a nearby hospital, Bauchi Deputy Police Commissioner T. Stevens told journalists: ‘The situation has been brought under control. We have our men minding all areas.’ Attacks in central and northern Nigeria blamed Boko Haram of haveing killed some 1,400 people since 2010.
Pray: for a spiritual breakthrough in Nigeria that would lead to a ceasing of terrorist activities. (Ps.7:9)
The death toll for the Christmas Eve bombings in central Nigeria and the Christian-Muslim clash that ensued has risen to at least 80 people. Police initially said 32 people were killed in the coordinated bomb explosions in Jos on Christmas Eve. The latest death toll includes those killed in the connected conflict between Muslim and Christian youths on Sunday in central Nigeria. Another 100 people were wounded and are in the hospital. On Christmas Eve, two bombs exploded near a busy market where people were Christmas shopping in Jos, the capital of Plateau state. Another blast occurred in a predominantly Christian neighbourhood and a fourth bomb exploded near a road leading to the main mosque in Jos. Sectarian violence is nothing new to residents of Jos, who earlier this year endured a massacre that left more than 500 people dead. Jos lies in the middle of Nigeria, where the Muslim north meets the mainly Christian south. Pray: for the people of Nigeria that God would break through and bring peace to this divided nation.And for grace and wisdom for Archbishop Ben Kwashi as a peacemaker. (Mt.12:25) More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/nigeria.christmas.violence.death.toll.rises.to.80/27298.htm