Displaying items by tag: Nigeria

Friday, 12 January 2018 11:12

Nigeria: environmental threat to families

Caught in a Niger Delta downpour, a woman runs for shelter. The plastic bottles of homemade petrol she was selling are beaten off their wooden perch by the heavy rain. The smell of petrol rises from the ground and hangs in the air before being washed down a lane past small concrete houses. There is little research into human health issues from exposure to oil spills on land. Oil seeps into the soil, the air and the water table, releasing harmful chemicals like benzene and toluene. Benzene is a poison, while toluene can cause kidney and liver damage. ‘Our farming area is always deep with oil, when you go there you can recognise the odour,’ says Chief Bira Saturday. He has suffered from asthma since a spill. ‘The doctor said it was the odour of this oil that we are breathing that damaged the baby in my womb’, his wife added.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 21 December 2017 14:24

Nigeria fighting Fulani

‘I watched Fulani kill and burn homes with glee. Numan region belongs to us. If the government cannot protect us, then we will protect our land and our heritage. It is all we have to hand on to our children’, said Pwanedo Justin after fleeing his village. The government’s inability to address the plight of Christians, and policies where Muslim victims are given priority over Christian ones, have deepened the sense of injustice. This recent attack was a reaction to a massacre in three villages by Bachama youths. Bachama are predominantly Christian. The Fulani are heavily armed with sophisticated weapons, which are believed to come from outside Nigeria. Thousands were displaced and are now missing. These attacks remain the single most dangerous threat to Nigeria today. On 19 December the federal government announced it will spend $1bn on fighting insurgency.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 20 October 2017 11:12

UK missionaries kidnapped in Nigeria

On 13 October four Britons were snatched by gunmen in Nigeria’s southern Delta state. The region holds most of the country’s crude oil and is Nigeria’s economic mainstay. Kidnapping for ransom is common in parts of Nigeria, and several foreigners have been taken in the past few years. The abductors have not yet made contact. Those kidnapped are reported to be former GP David Donovan and his wife Shirley who run New Foundations, with their two sons. They have run Bible classes, a boat clinic and health care centre there for fourteen years. Four suspects have been arrested, and a joint task force will attempt to rescue the family . Travellers to Nigeria are currently warned to avoid going to areas of Delta state. See:

Published in British Isles
Friday, 08 September 2017 09:52

Nigeria: UK fight Boko Haram, neglect Fulani

On 30 August, foreign secretary Boris Johnson and international development secretary Priti Patel visited Nigeria to assess British assistance in the fight against the Islamic terror group Boko Haram. A Nigerian special adviser on religious affairs, Canon Nenman Gowon, said, ‘While the attention of the British government and other international development agencies is turned to the devastation caused by Boko Haram in the northeast, very little or nothing is even mentioned about the hundreds of villages and people killed by the Islamic Fulani cattle herders who are still prowling Plateau, Adamawa, Taraba, and other states.’ The adviser blamed the president for turning a blind eye to the crises in Nigeria’s middle belt, ‘because it is a predominantly Christian region and the Fulani Muslims are of the president’s tribe’.

Published in Worldwide

In 1966 an Igbo leader, in south-east Nigeria, said that only one thing would prevent a civil war - ‘that Nigeria be split, with all southerners in the north repatriated to the south and northerners in the south repatriated to the north’. This demand was followed by the Biafra civil war. In June 2017, irked by renewed secessionist calls from the same Igbo ethnic group, a coalition of northern groups demanded that ‘all Igbo currently residing in northern Nigeria relocate within three months, and all northerners residing in the east are advised likewise’. Pray for peace. Meanwhile on 6 August, masked gunmen stormed into the early morning service at a church in the southeast and opened fire, killing 35 Christians. On Tuesday a woman suicide bomber blew herself up and killed 27 others at a market in the northeast. See http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/dead-nigeria-church-shooting-170806153758051.html and https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-security-idUSKCN1AV25K

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 07 July 2017 14:54

Nigeria: Fulani conflict escalates

Africa's Sahara desert is increasingly encroaching upon traditional farmlands. Muslim Fulani herdsmen, the largest nomadic tribe in Africa, are desperate for grazing land and water for their cattle, but farmers can't tolerate their crops being eaten, trampled, and destroyed by those cattle. This conflict for survival gives rise to violence. The mainly Christian Nigerian farmers have no defence against marauding herdsmen wielding guns and machetes. The central Christian area of Nigeria was once the main target, but with increasing desert encroachment, more areas are targeted. The Fulani are now even more of a threat than Boko Haram insurgents. Farmers are being slaughtered, and some are considering abandoning their farms. AK-47 assault rifles from the conflicts in neighbouring Libya and Mali come across porous borders. A recent anti-grazing law has failed to stop the Fulani. President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, has ordered military crackdowns on them. Pray for God to destroy their sources and stockpile of weapons.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 23 June 2017 11:08

North Africa: mass losses at sea

Some 126 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean after Libyan people-smugglers stole their outboard motor, leaving them at the mercy of the waves and other attackers. The dinghy, which left from a beach in Libya on 16 June, was heading toward Italy when it was attacked. The waves soon engulfed the dinghy and it sank. It is believed there were 130 on board, of whom four (two Nigerians and two Sudanese) were rescued by passing fishermen. Most of the passengers were from Sudan. A spokesman for the UN migration agency said the incident was ‘tantamount to murder’. He added, ‘We believe the motor may even have been stolen by the smugglers who launched the dinghy in the first place, or a rival group. Many motors have been stolen in recent times as they are valuable to the smugglers.’

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 16 June 2017 12:12

Praising God with 60,000 live worshippers

So far, more than 60,000 people worldwide have watched a one-hour Instagram live video that begins daily at midnight for people to praise God, tagged as the #HallelujahChallenge. Nigerian gospel artist Nathaniel Bassey began hosting the session on 1 June to just over a thousand people, urging Christians to join him in worship for a month. Helped by the promotion of numerous popular Nigerian artists, Bassey (who describes himself on his Twitter page as an ‘authentic Jesus lover’) tweeted, ‘It is a revival and a revolution. JESUS is in charge!’ It is thought to be the most widely-circulated praise and worship movement on social media. Bassey said, ‘The Challenge is a mandate from God, and I am just a vessel. Beyond all the miracles and testimonies, God is doing something eternal - something that will outlive generations.’

Published in Praise Reports
Friday, 12 May 2017 11:13

Nigeria: 82 Chibok girls released

On Sunday the Bring Back Our Girls Group (BBOG) applauded the federal government and security agencies on the release of 82 more Chibok girls. Their release was negotiated through the combined efforts of security agencies, the military, the Swiss government, the Red Cross, and local and international NGOs. 21 girls had been set free last October, and the government committed to rescuing the 113 girls who are still captive. A spokesperson for the Young Women Political Forum urged the ministry of women’s affairs and the ministry of health to work together to provide the girls and their parents with adequate psychological counselling. Pray that communities will accept these victims of rape, who are now mothers with babies and no husbands. See also the Prayer Alert world article 3.

Published in Praise Reports
Friday, 12 May 2017 10:32

Global: 20 million close to starvation

In February Prayer Alert readers were told of 1.4 million children at risk of starvation in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, and northeast Nigeria. The crisis has worsened. Millions of people are caught in conflicts within their countries. Livelihoods are disrupted, and they cannot produce food. This is a God-sized situation that requires intercession and His intervention. The UN needs $4.4 billion by July to prevent famine in these countries. An official said the organisation is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since its creation. Without the funding and collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death. Yemen's needs are the most critical: two-thirds of the population (19 million) need assistance. In South Sudan, 7.5 million need help. In Somalia and northeastern Nigeria there is also severe food insecurity because of violence and instability. See also

Published in Worldwide