News

Nigeria: Protestant Pastor, 10-Year-Old Boy and Two Other Christians Killed for Their Faith

April 11, 2020

Persecution of Christians in Nigeria continues to increase rapidly — but this persecution rarely makes the news outside that country.

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 with sporadic attacks for years, and has been escalating recently. Targeting the Christians are both the Islamic militant group Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani herdsmen. The Order requests once again that the UN and the US State Department address the persecution of Nigerian Christians, and move the Nigerian government to take decisive action against Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen for the protection of its Christian citizens.

For previous coverage of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria at ChristianPersecution.com, see here.

“Pastor, 10-Year-Old Boy and Two Other Christians Killed in Plateau State, Nigeria,” Morning Star News, April 9, 2020:

JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen in north-central Nigeria on Tuesday (April 7) killed a pastor and three members of his congregation, including a 10-year-old boy, sources said.

In an attack on Ngbra Zongo village, near Miango in Plateau State’s Bassa County, the herdsmen shot and killed Matthew Tagwai, pastor of an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) congregation, in his home after 8 p.m. that night, according to area residents. Pastor Tagwai was 34.

He leaves behind two young children and his pregnant wife, area residents said.

Also shot dead in their homes were ECWA congregation members Ishaku Abba, 10; Dih Sunday, 21; and Duh Abba, 38, area resident Patience Moses said.

“The attack was carried out by armed herdsmen against the community at about 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday, 7 April,” Moses told Morning Star News. “Two other Christians, Abbayo Ki, 45, and Monday Adamas, 19, were also injured during the attack by the herdsmen, and they are currently being treated at a hospital at Dantako village.”

A survivor of the attack, Moses Gata, confirmed that the assailants were ethnic Fulani, a predominantly Muslim people prevalent throughout western Africa.

“There’s no doubt about it – our attackers are Muslim Fulani herdsmen,” Gata told Morning Star News. “They were communicating with themselves in Fulfulde, the herdsmen’s language.”

After the attack, the second on Ngbra Zongo, the assailants went toward Dutsen Kura, a Fulani herdsmen settlement in Bassa County, he said.

Andy Yakubu, another area resident, said the attack by “heartless herdsmen” was unprovoked.

“In the past one week, Fulani herdsmen have been attacking different villages,” Yakubu told Morning Star News in a text message. “What is the crime of these innocent people against Fulani herdsmen? For how long shall we continue to experience this killing? For how long shall we continue to beg the government and the security agencies to come to the aid of our people?”…

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.