Nigeria’s Christian community has suffered quite a few outrages by the hands of Islamist militants this week, and the situation might deteriorate further as Christmas approaches.
Ranked eleventh on the planet on Open Doors’ anti-Christian persecution index, Nigeria has seen more Christians killed for his or her faith this 12 months than another nation, this despite the indisputable fact that around half the country is Christian.
Thousands of Christians have been killed this 12 months alone and hundreds more abducted.
Catholic Bishop John Bakeni, from Maiduguri Diocese, last month said that in some parts of the country the violence had “assumed genocidal character”, while earlier this 12 months Bishop Wilfred Anagbe warned that massacres during Christian festivals were becoming “customary” in parts of the country.
This week alone quite a few murders and kidnappings have taken place.
A Catholic priest, Fr Bobbo Paschal and quite a lot of others in his parish were kidnapped during a raid on Monday morning. During the attack, the brother of one other priest was killed.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, the vice principal of the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, in Nigeria’s north-western Kebbi State, Mallam Hassan Yakubu Makuku was killed attempting to protect students. Twenty-five of the schoolgirls were kidnapped throughout the night attack, most of them Christians.
As if this weren’t enough, one more attack took place on a Protestant church service in Eruku, in central Nigeria. Two worshippers were killed within the attack, which happened mid-service, and the church pastor and quite a lot of others were kidnapped.
The frequency of the attacks is probably best reflected by an area, who spoke to Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need, concerning the abduction of the schoolgirls.
“Just after we thought there was a little bit of a lull within the killings and abductions, the news of the kidnapping of around twenty-five girls … has come as a rude shock, throwing the community into grief,” they said.
The situation in Nigeria has deteriorated to such an extent that the US government has once more added it to the list of nations “of particular concern”.
Announcing the choice on social media, US President Donald Trump said, “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are chargeable for this mass slaughter. I’m hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’.”
More recently, Trump has threatened military motion against Nigeria over the attacks on Christians.
 Nigeria’s Christian community has suffered quite a few outrages by the hands of Islamist militants this week, and the situation might deteriorate further...){kind=link}