Christian persecution in Nigeria: Muslim Fulani herdsmen, along with the terror group Boko Haram, have been terrorizing and killing Christians in Nigeria with impunity for years now, with little or no significant response from the Nigerian government or military. This article provides the salient fact that Fulani herdsmen have now killed 15 Christians in January alone.
This underscores the fact that the situation of Christians in Nigeria has become a human rights catastrophe of immense proportions. The Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, once again urgently implores the United Nations and the governments of all nations that are committed to human rights and religious freedom to make the plight of Nigeria’s Christians a top priority. Those Christians are walking the way of the Cross. May our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ also bless them with the joy of a resurrection and new flourishing of their communities.
For previous coverage of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria from ChristianPersecution.com, see here.
“Christians Slain, Wounded, Kidnapped in Plateau State, Nigeria,” Morning Star News, January 27, 2020:
JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed two Christians in separate attacks in Plateau state this month, in addition to the 13 Christians from the same denomination killed on Jan. 8, sources said.
Herdsmen invaded Torok village in Riyom County on Jan. 20, killing Reuben Bulus, a 25-year-old member of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), according to Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, a human rights activist with the Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria.
“Bulus was killed at about 7:10 p.m. on Jan. 20 when herdsmen invaded his village,” Mwantiri told Morning Star News.
In Gako village, near Rim in Riyom County, another COCIN member, Ngam Stephen Dachung, was killed by herdsmen on Jan. 1, Mwantiri said.
“He was shot dead at a point at Gako-Diyan junction where many lives were previously lost to herdsmen ambushes in the area,” he said.
On Jan. 8, 13 COCIN were members slain in Plateau state’s Kulben village, Mangu County, in an attack by about 20 herdsmen that also wounded three others.
In addition, Mwantiri said, herdsmen killed a Christian woman, Mary Machief, and her baby daughter in Plateau state’s Bokkos County on Dec. 16. The herdsmen attacked them in Machief’s father’s home in Kunnet village that night, relatives told Morning Star News…
Another relative said Machief was not killed instantly but died later from wounds….
Near Bukuru in Jos South County, herdsmen on Jan. 21 kidnapped Christie Peter Mwankon in Kwata village.
The 26-year-old COCIN member, daughter of a former Plateau state tourism official, was abducted after the herdsmen shot their way into the village and broke into her sister’s house, sources said.
“Christie Peter was kidnapped at about 2 a.m. in her sister’s house when the herdsmen broke into the house and kidnapped the graduate of Ahmadu Bello University-Zaria,” said area resident Solomon Kogi. “The herdsmen are demanding a ransom of 5 million naira [$US13,735] from her family.”…
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.
