Nigeria is about 50% Christian. Of those Christians, around 75% are Protestant, 24% Roman Catholic. Of the remaining 1%, there is a small Orthodox Christian community. These Christians are being subjected to a ruthless persecution that has gone on for years, and has been sharply escalating in recent years.
For previous coverage of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria from ChristianPersecution.com, see here
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“Christians Killed by Jihadists During Curfew Imposed by Nigeria Government,” International Christian Concern, August 27, 2021:
08/27/2021 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – 17-year-old Timothy Dauda, a Christian farmer in central Nigeria’s Miango district, sits on a hospital bed with a gunshot wound in his forearm.
On August 17th, in his village of Tafi-gana North-West of Jos, Plateau state, 5 of his tribesmen were killed by men wielding AK-47s and machetes.
“I know the Fulani that wanted to kill me,” said Timothy, narrating the incident to an ICC representative in Nigeria, “I know one of them, we call him ‘Tere-G’ but his real name is Hashimu Hudu. ‘I will kill you today,’ Hudu said to me. ‘My God will save me,’ I replied.”
“Then he shot me…” Dauda continued, “I fell down and pretended as if I am dead.”
The gunmen, identified as jihadist Fulani herders, attacked Dauda’s community, as well as several others, during curfew hours imposed by the state government.
“I don’t know how the Fulani went out to attack during the curfew hours” Ezekiel Bini, president of the Irigwe Youth Movement told an ICC contact in Jos. “They killed 11 of my people and 4 are missing from 4 communities during the curfew hours.”
“The Four college students went missing on Wednesday, August 18th,” said Bini. “They were trekking to school for their final exams. We searched for their corpses, but we couldn’t find them.”
An eyewitness of the abduction, Rikwe Jacob, told ICC that four Fulani militants pointed a gun on her before kidnapping the four boys. “The Fulani said I should allow them to go with the boys or kill me, I reported it to the police, but we didn’t see them again.”
Ezekiel Wambe, a politician from the ruling party of All Progressive Party in the county, Identified the 4 missing students as: Ize Danladi (23), Ahmadu Tokyo (25), GyaTokyoo (22), Emmanuel Weyi (22).
Three miles from the kidnapping, on August 16th, another Christian farmer was killed on his farm at Dong, Jos North Local Government area.
“Very sad we lost a good farmer and a Christian from my community,” Reuben Ngah, a Dong community leader told ICC in a phone interview. “His name is Adoki Eveh 41 years old, he was killed by Fulani (militants).”
“I heard Allah Akbar [Allah is Great], with the straight bullet gunshot that killed my brother from the back.” An eyewitness told ICC, requesting to remain anonymous, “I fired them with my gun… they all ran away with their cattle,”he said….
One of the community leaders, Simon Rivi, was an eye-witness to the incident, and told ICC that “The Fulani (militants) positioned themselves in four places, on Tuesday night around 10 pm. They surrounded the entire community shooting guns and holding machetes. I managed to hide inside the farm.” He added, “The Fulani all dressed in black, some holding flashlights.”
“The government abandoned us because of our faith,” said the Catchiest David Kwa, a Catholic priest from the district and Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria of the Irigwe Tribesmen. “The government doesn’t speak to condemned killing by Fulani terrorists,” Kwa said with tears in his eyes while arriving at the mortuary….
