Mass burial

It's physically dangerous to be Christian in parts of the world. Nigeria is one of those places where disaster keeps happening. At least 60 were killed two days ago. 

A local pastor says, "‘Many of these attacks result in mass burials [photo]. The sight of numerous corpses and the frequent need to conduct mass burials is something no minister wishes to experience, yet it has become our reality. Daily kidnappings, molestation and rape of Christian women, particularly in rural villages across north-central Nigeria . . [are] disturbingly common.’

Another leader, eyewitness of another recent attack, adds: "What we are experiencing in Bokkos is so devastating . .

"They burned down the church, they burned down houses. They killed pastors, they killed people, they killed even women and children. I saw the corpses and I shed tears."

 from Barnabas Aid

Open Doors 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Nigeria is sometimes called the "giant" of Africa for its relatively large population and economy. About half its people are Muslim and half Christian. It's also in the World Watch List, as one of the worst nations in the world for persecution.

It's hard to hear about the violence some of these people live through, their families and neighbors brutally killed and maimed by machete-wielding attackers. Homes and villages are burned, livestock killed, their living destroyed. The video relates their experience of a terrible attack last December.

Most of the targets are located in the area of largely Christian farmers. Amazingly, Wikipedia doesn't even mention this in their Nigeria article, in either the Crime or Human Rights sections. The attackers are usually Fulani herders (Muslim) or terror group Boko Haram (also Muslim).

Open Doors 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

For reasons related to their faith, 4,998 Christians across the world were actually murdered. An amazing 83% of those were located in Nigeria, "the deadliest place to follow Jesus." (Deadly danger is nothing new in Nigeria, as I've written about for years.)

Attacks on churches and Christian-run schools, hospitals, cemeteries "exploded" to 14,766 in 2023, six times the number in the previous year. That number includes the closing of churches in China (church bombed in 2019) and mob violence in India. The global number of believers forced to flee their homes because of war or extremism doubled last year to 295,120. 

Though not in the first ten of the World Watch List, the African country Congo (DRC) was the site just days ago of terrible violence on July 24. More than 57 Christian villagers were beheaded by Islamic State Central Africa Province.

Open Doors was founded to pay attention to these things around the world; to help them, and to inform the West where we know next to nothing of the price some Christians pay to follow Jesus.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Yabacon 1

A financial technology (fintech) business, Flutterwave, started up in 2016 and was valued at a billion dollars by 2021. Among its customers are a couple of global giants, Uber and Microsoft. Sounds like a story from America's legendary Silicon Valley, but it is not.

Flutterwave was founded by Nigerians on the African continent, in a suburb (Yaba) of Nigeria's largest city, Lagos. 

image

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is home to five of the continent's seven "unicorns." Lagos itself, with 27 million people, is Africa's largest city and quickly becoming a major technology center.

from Mercatornet

(cont'd tomorrow)

Dangerous

Open Doors USA keeps track of persecution suffered by believers in Christ all over the world. 

They maintain a watch list of the ten most dangerous countries for Christians. This year, the previously most dangerous, North Korea, was replaced at the number one position by another.

Taken 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to Rabbi Cooper and his co-author, the extremists are a small segment of the huge tribe of seventeen million Fulani. There were at least 47 attacks on churches or Christians in the first half of this year, with a sum of >12,000 Christians killed over the last five years.

Christians are not alone in being threatened by religious tensions and violence, kidnapping and criminality. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)  reports that religious freedom in general is poor in Nigeria. Minority Shi'a Muslims, too, are persecuted by the government.

Co-authors Cooper and Moore hope that American churches will "adopt" Nigerian churches (photo) as a way to bring global attention to their vulnerability. The rabbi says, “Nigerians feel like they’ve been totally forgotten. . . Speaking as a Jew, I think American Christians are the sleeping giant here who can help halt this violence.”

from The Stream

Taken for ransom

Last December another Nigerian Christian was abducted while traveling to her family for Christmas. Her pastor received a phone call during a church service from her kidnapper demanding enormous ransom. Shaken, he called the police to give them phone numbers, but they did nothing.

Seminary training didn't cover negotiation, but the pastor negotiated for this woman. He wound up selling his car/clothes/house to raise money, and the small congregation managed to come up with enough. She was returned unharmed though some Christian men with her were killed on the spot.

A Jewish Orthodox rabbi and a Christian met with her last February and tell her story in their new book, The Next Jihad. Rabbi Cooper, director for social global action at Simon Wiesenthal Center, has spent fifty years standing for human rights and against genocide.

from The Stream

(cont'd tomorrow)

Persecuted 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post about Nigerian Christians)

“I stand here for pleading the government of U.S.,” Rebecca Sharibu said in tears and broken English . . Please, help me. I need my daughter back. I need my daughter.”

Boko Haram kidnapped another 110 girls in February of 2018. Rebecca's daughter, Leah, is the only one who has not yet returned to her home. According to a family friend: "When [Leah] was told to renounce her faith and recite the Kalima-e-Shahadah — ’Kalima-e-Shahadah’ means the Islamic faith creed — she refused to do that . . . That was the only reason that she was kept back.”


Alheri Magaji says her tribe is nearly extinct. Almost 400 people of her mostly-Christian Adara tribe were killed by Fulani herdsmen (a Muslim tribe) just months ago. 

The Nigerian government describes the Fulani attacks as merely “retaliatory.” But Magaji said the Adara people never have attacked the Fulani.

She, like Rebecca, also pleads for U.S. intervention. She says, "There seems to be a systematic plan to take over . . Nigeria as a whole. It is purely religious. Purely. I’m living this. It’s not something I read in the newspaper. It’s what we’re living."

(Note: the linked story is graphic)

Persecuted

Open Doors USA ranks the level of persecution of Christians around the world. Their method considers non-violent pressure on private, family, community, national, and church life - and of course violence.



In horrible first place on this list for 18 years is North Korea. Nigeria is ranked #12 in the world. You may remember that almost 300 girls were kidnapped by terrorist group Boko Haram in the mostly Christian village of Chibok back in 2014.

Three Nigerian women came to the U.S. a month ago to present eyewitness reports from their own experience.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Future cities

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Predictions can be made from population trends. That's what yesterday's video was about. Populations are growing in parts of Asia, and growing even faster in African cities. 

By 2075 - Neither China nor Europe have cities on the "20 biggest cities" list, while the Western Hemisphere has only New York and Mexico City. African cities are huge.

If trends continue, by 2100 the largest city in the world will be Lagos, Nigeria, with maybe 88 million people which is more than twice as big as today's biggest city, Tokyo (38 million). 

Violence 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

At the end of June, villages were destroyed in northern Nigeria and 200 Christians killed while about 3,000 were displaced - which means they ran from their homes.  Non-profit Open Doors came in to the extremely unstable area to help. A report from one of their staff:

"The displaced Christians were in a pathetic situation . . Life has become a living hell for them. They have lost loved ones, houses, and all they labored for in the twinkling of an eye. The agony they are going through is hard to describe. We saw people who were still in a haze over what they have just gone through. Children were crying hysterically, perhaps because of hunger or perhaps because of hunger and the trauma.”

The Open Doors team brought rice, oil, tomato paste, toiletries the next day. One of the displaced victims, Mary, wrote a thank you message and also said:

“My prayer is this: Wherever these resources are coming from, may God pay you back a thousand-fold . . We plead that believers all over the world will pray that God will bring an end to all these killings because we have become homeless, fatherless and orphaned due to the attacks."

(from Open Doors USA)

Violence

Every life is precious, so the world is following the story of 12 boys and a soccer coach who were trapped two weeks ago in a Thailand cave. Attempts at rescue have so far saved eight.

Every life is precious, so why is the world not following the story of thousands of Nigerian citizens who are frequently attacked - and die - in their own country? It's been happening for years (look at posts under the Nigeria label). 

“That 6,000 Christians, ‘mostly children, women and the aged,’ have been butchered in just the first six months of this year is a reminder of how violence only escalates when left unchecked. That is the story of the Muslim persecution of Christians in Nigeria.”

photo: stream

"In what the Christian Association of Nigeria is calling a pure genocide, 238 more Christians were killed and churches desecrated by Muslims last week in the west African nation. This brings the death toll of Christians to [over] 6,000 since the start of 2018."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Still suffering

Nigeria has suffered violence for years (you can read my posts about it under the "Nigeria" label). I haven't run across any reports of further violence lately and wondered if it had stopped. According to this article, the answer is a definite "no," the violence continues.

But where are the reports? The author says that Western media are not reporting it and that agrees with the fact that I haven't seen any. So how does this author know it? He explains:

photo: ontheworldmap.com

"For the last several months, a good friend and Christian missionary serving the poorest of the poor in Nigeria has been sending me emails with terrifying news. Fulani tribesmen raping and killing villagers. Children being used as Islamic suicide bombers, resulting in scores of casualties. One horrible report after another." She says:

"It is happening every day. The worst this year was the New Year’s Day massacre, followed by a mass burial of 73 victims. There have been many attacks since then. Villages razed, girls and women raped, men butchered. Cutlasses have been replaced by AK-47’s. The military has, at times, seemed complicit"

A Christian pastor has denounced the national president for not caring, and a warrant for his arrest has been issued.

More attacks

Nigeria has been suffering the attacks of Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist terrorist group, for eight years. Over 20,000 people have been killed and thousands have been kidnapped, following the pattern of ISIS.

photo: newafricabusinessnews,com

Last year the Nigerian government claimed to have crushed the group, but another 19 have been killed. Victims included members of a civilian self-defense force and some people in mourning for them, plus another 23 wounded, all in a string of attacks this summer.

"Boko Haram has increasingly used girls and young women to carry out attacks on marketplaces, checkpoints and other targets. Some young women who escaped extremist group have said girls are drugged and forced to carry out suicide missions."

No protection

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

So villages in northern Nigeria are in trouble.

But who will help them? Their government appears to be helping the attackers with weapons and supplies. "The complicity between the army and the Fulani is obvious . . The world’s indifference gives the Nigerian government the advantage in what looks like a quiet effort to rid northern Nigeria of its Christians."

All U.N. member nations adopted the "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) in 2005. It's a commitment to protect populations from genocide and ethnic cleansing. If the Nigerian government can't or won't do that, then it seems like the U.N. security council has given itself some responsibility.

One woman's story: 

"Deborah, now 31 and living in a camp for the internally displaced, was captured by the Boko Haram terrorist group and held captive for a year and a half. The Islamists came to her village and slaughtered her husband and family before abducting her and “marrying” her off to a 20-year-old Muslim terrorist . . . After Deborah was recaptured following an escape, she received 80 lashes as punishment. She told journalist Douglas Murray that she no longer fears death.

“What sort of death would I be running from?” Deborah asks. “I have already died once.”

photo: indianexpress.com

Nigeria burns

Christians of Nigeria in Africa have been targets of violence for years. Islamic terror group Boko Haram often attacks villages at night in the north. This is where the attack on a school resulted in 200 girls kidnapped (#Bringbackourgirls) in 2014.

The country is roughly half Christian and half Muslim. After an ineffective Christian president, they now have a Muslim president - who happens to be of the Fulani tribes.

"A few days before any attack, a military helicopter is spotted dropping arms and other supplies into the areas inhabited by the Fulani tribes. Then the attack comes." Elements in the Nigerian military are arming and supplying Fulani fighters.

"When challenged after a massacre, soldiers often claim that they didn’t receive any orders — or had been commanded not to intervene."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Obianuju

Obianuju Ekeocha is yet another voice from Africa telling the West that heavy-handed "aid" is not always appreciated.

Other voices object to heavy-handed aid for economic and ethical reasons. 

But Obianuju objects because she sees Western aid used to corrupt traditional African values. Specifically, Melissa Gates (yes, that Gates) spent billions of dollars to enact population control in Africa.

Obianuju says, "I saw this as a bold move on her part to impose her worldview upon the poorest of the world. She was pushing to shift the views of millions of people on family, motherhood, marriage and sex.

"With the rapid moral and cultural decline in the west, many Africans realize that they must stand firm by what they know to be true, good and beautiful."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Militant goal

So Venezuela (yesterday's post) is rich in oil reserves, and depends on that oil for nearly all its economy. Nigeria too is rich in (and dependent on) oil. Nigeria's oil industry is going downhill.

There was hope that Nigeria's growing economy could trigger prosperity all over Africa. But in just months their oil production has has sunk by about 30%.  Why? "Militant" attacks. Groups of barbarians attack and blow up pipelines, with the result that production of barrels per day went from 2.2 million to 1.4.

It's an expensive risk for Eni (Italian), Chevron, and Shell to try to keep business going. This serious setback for Nigeria's economy means hardship for its people. Oil companies can't keep investing capital in a location where their pipelines are blown up and their people are in danger.

New militant group "Niger Delta Avengers claimed responsibility for the Chevron attack and said, on its website, that its “major goal” is “to cripple the Nigerian economy.”

Deadly

Under the "Nigeria" label on the right you can find stories of attacks by Boko Haram. You will also find that the Nigerian military won some battles against them in the last year, but the extremist group has come back swinging.

They "spent four days last week brutalizing villages across northern Nigeria, barbarically undermining the Nigerian government’s claims it has defeated Boko Haram." They would throw fire bombs into homes and gun down the ones who tried to escape.

Up to 85 people met their death, dozens more were injured or kidnapped. "Last year, Boko Haram claimed the morbid title of deadliest terror group for its killings in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon." That is, they are now officially more deadly than Islamic State.

Army runs

Nigeria's suffering citizens in its northeast quadrant are still the target of Boko Haram. (Click on Nigeria under Labels for stories of these attacks.)

Dozens of girls were taken and hundreds of buildings set on fire over the weekend. A local newspaper reports that the military base was destroyed while soldiers and their commanding officer ran for their lives. After a battle on November 19, 107 soldiers were missing. Equipment was stolen including a tank, trucks, guns, and uniforms.

Civilian fighters held off attackers in Gulak until military reinforcements came to help save the town.