Displaying items by tag: Boko Haram

Thursday, 13 July 2023 23:57

Nigeria: Christians barbarically murdered

90% of all Christians killed worldwide are in Nigeria. Christians live in a constant state of terror, fearing abduction, torture, and murder by radical Islamic jihadists. Boko Haram and Nigeria’s arm of IS slaughter innocent Christians and burn down Christian churches. One survivor stated, ‘I saw bodies in the street: children and women, some were crying for help.’ Some attackers even pose as preachers to slaughter Christian congregants and kidnap Christian children. Fulani herdsmen are also increasing their barbaric persecution of Nigerian Christians. They have slaughtered thousands: it's genocide. The American Centre for Law and Justice is launching a multi-pronged legal advocacy campaign, urging the UN, USA, and world leaders to take urgent action. Its global offices are expanding their most extensive campaign for the persecuted Church ever undertaken, filing lawsuits, advocacy letters, and legal submissions to the UN - saying, ‘Together we can protect Christians in Nigeria from the growing scourge of jihadist persecution’.

Published in Worldwide

From April to June 2023 Release International is drawing special attention to the persecution of Christians in north and central Nigeria. The suffering of Nigerian Christians is causing an international outcry, concern and alarm. The ongoing violence targeted against Christian communities has led to mass killings of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Terror groups Boko Haram and IS West Africa continue to defy the authorities, and Fulani militants attack Christian villages with impunity. Reports indicate that in 2022 Fulani extremists killed more than 6,000 Christians and destroyed 17 villages. Please pray for peace for Nigeria, and also for protection of Christian communities from terrorists and extremists across the country.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 15 July 2022 09:45

Nigeria: mass escape from prison

Hundreds of prisoners escaped from the Kuje medium-security prison near Abuja due to an attack attributed to Boko Haram. Equipped with explosives, the attackers freed 600 of the 994 inmates and only about half of the escaped prisoners have been found. A large number of captured Boko Haram fighters were released in the attack. Armed extremist groups have been gaining power in Nigeria, with a lack of effective opposition from security forces and government officials. Boko Haram has maintained an insurgency in Northern Nigeria for thirteen years and displaced over 2.4 million people through violent attacks and threats. They have murdered tens of thousands of Christians and forcibly converted many others. Please pray for the end of their attacks, and for the Lord to soften the hearts of militants.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 20 January 2022 20:01

Nigeria: plans for Leah Sharibu's release?

The Nigerian government says efforts are under way to release Leah Sharibu, the Christian teenager who was one of 110 girls abducted in 2018 by the Boko Haram group ISWAP. Her classmates were released, but Leah refused to convert to Islam and was declared a ‘slave for life’ by ISWAP while remaining in captivity. The federal government announced it is using the military to ensure Leah and all captives regain their freedom, and armed groups operating in Nigeria’s northwest are now called terrorists. Reacting to the announcement, Dr Kathaza Gondwe, advocacy director for CSW, said, ‘It is belated news as Nigeria’s president has been promising Leah's parents since 2018 that he would work quickly to ensure her release. But it's a welcomed development. We can only pray the government will honour this commitment.’ CSW believes that categorising ISWAP as terrorists will help in how the armed forces deal with them.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 03 June 2021 20:26

Christian persecution in 2021

Christians are increasingly being persecuted violently: by brutal IS in the Middle East, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and Hindu extremists in India. Release International issued a report on persecution trends in 2021. It is a wake-up call to take our prayers for our persecuted family to new levels. Nigerian attacks are driven by Islamist ideologies to destroy ‘the infidels’. 300 Christians remain detained without trial inside Eritrea. The Chinese government is increasing its ‘clean-cup’ of anything that does not advance the communist agenda. North Korea’s policy against Christians is the longest, harshest persecution in recorded history. Iranians constantly fear they are under surveillance when they meet secretly. The pressure has led to an exodus from Iran that will continue in 2021. Egyptian Christian converts from a Muslim background will continue to pay a high price for their faith and will be expelled from their families, divorced, and lose their employment.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 20 May 2021 21:42

Nigeria: don’t forget Leah Sharibu

Leah Sharibu was 14 when she was abducted in 2018 by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). She defied the terrorist group, a splinter group of Boko Haram, when they abducted 110 girls from school. ISWAP released 104 of them a month later; five died, and Leah was the only one not freed because she refused to renounce her Christian faith. President Buhari pledged to secure her freedom during his visit to the USA. In London, he told the Archbishop of Canterbury he is working quietly to free her. In January 2020 there were reports that Leah had had a baby. In March 2021, rumours surfaced that she had given birth to her second child. Her parents said that the government had not helped them secure Leah’s release; they rest their hope in God, not government. Her mother Rebecca said, ‘By the grace of God. I have not lost hope because God is in control and people are praying.’

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 13 May 2021 20:11

Nigeria: ‘Bring back Chibok girls’

Attendees at the Bring Back our Girls conference heard that twenty parents have now died before being reunited with their daughters. ‘I’m Chibok girl Dad. Bring Back Our Girls Now’, read the white letters on one man’s red T-shirt. On 15 April seven years ago, he woke to hear his daughter had been abducted from her school. He has not seen her since and has no idea if she is alive, but amidst his anguish he pleads, ‘Our people are being killed on a weekly basis’. 112 Chibok girls remain unaccounted for. The dad pleaded, ‘ Why has the government abandoned us? I appeal to Governor Zulum to bring peace to our land’. ‘No amount of intimidation will stop us demanding the girls’ rights’, said another parent. There have been three attacks this week in Damasak town, 200 miles north of Chibok, this time by an IS group which has splintered away from Boko Haram.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 04 March 2021 20:57

Naomi’s story

Naomi and other refugees ate edible leaves while fleeing Boko Haram. She was desperate. ‘I had only God, and I talked to Him. He gave me the strength I needed.’ Naomi, her children and several thousand other refugees hid on a mountain for two years before Boko Haram chased them, with guns and bombs, to Cameroon. After leaving Cameroon, she found a camp for internally displaced people, but again they were told to leave. ‘I did not know where to go, so I cried to God.’ Next, Voice of the Martyrs workers found her - an answer to her prayers. They helped her children start school, and helped them move into their own house. ‘Since the passing of my husband, God has kept me. The attack only made me stronger in my faith.’

Published in Praise Reports
Thursday, 07 January 2021 20:35

Nigeria: ‘No evil will take away our faith’

A Christmas Eve attack by Boko Haram which left at least eleven dead and two church buildings razed to the ground prompted Nigerian bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri to issue a rallying cry, insisting Islamist violence is doomed to failure. Bishop Oliver said he was undaunted by the attack in Pemi, near Chibok, where over 270 mostly Christian schoolgirls had been kidnapped in 2016. Speaking after the attack, in which a priest was abducted, he said, ‘One thing that Boko Haram will never take from us is our faith. We will never allow our faith to be taken away by any evil. Our faith is becoming stronger and stronger. 100 people were baptised in one parish on Christmas Eve. People are so committed.’ The Bishop said that Boko Haram’s actions were in fact strengthening the Christian faith; his diocese has more Catholics than when there was no Boko Haram crisis.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 17 December 2020 18:19

Nigeria: struggles

Bullets fly overhead as schoolboys scream out in fear. Chaos. Shrapnel. Hundreds go missing. This was the scene last week when Boko Haram militants stormed a high-school in Katsina, northern Nigeria, to abduct hundreds of students, 400 remain missing. It is a horror story reminiscent of the 2014 kidnapping of schoolgirls that prompted the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign. The attack came just weeks after the brutal slaying of Nigerian farmers in Borno state by militants on motorcycles (thirty were beheaded). Nigeria's population is 50% Christian and 50% Muslim with groups like Boko Haram subscribing to a warped interpretation of Islam that justifies murder of Christians. In practice, both Christians and Muslims have been targeted in recent years. Pray for the government to improve its standards and protect vulnerable communities. Pray the authorities will also terminate the Special Anti-Robbery Squad’s contract to end the torture and extrajudicial killings that it has engaged in.  STOP PRESS: it has now been reported that all the schoolboys have been released by Boko Haram. See

Published in Worldwide
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