Nigeria Captures Militants After Attacks Kill Pastor, Villagers
ABUJA, NIGERIA (Worthy News)– Two fighters of the Islamic militant Boko Haram group were in custody of Nigeria’s military Saturday, March 24, following attacks on three villages in which 10 people died including a pastor, Christians said.
Nine other members of Boko Haram died during a fire fight with the military Thursday, March 22, in the aftermath of a failed attempt to a police station, a bank, and the home of a senior police official in Tudun Wada Local Government Area (LGA) in Kano State, according to eyewitnesses and rights activists.
The military response came after suspected Islamic militants attacked three villages in Chikun LGA area on March 15 using heavy AK 47 rifles to koll ten villagers, Assemblies of God (AOG) pastor, Innocent C Mari, said the Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) advocacy group.
The attackers reportedly also looted the church building and set fire to musical instruments during the attack in Kunfara village, in which two other men also died.
Additionally five men were shot dead and two injured in Dayi Village, while three men were killed and one injured in Dakunu Village, rights investigators said.
SHOOT-OUT
Later, on March 18, a man died during a shoot-out in Ungwan Yelwa in Chikun LGA area in Kaduna State between police and four gun men believed to be members of Boko Haram, though State Police Commissioner Mohammed Abubakar, reportedly denied they belonged to the militant group.
Christians looking for loved ones in the violence have become increasingly desperate. Helen and Dakim Gyang Bot said they can onlu assume that the voice on the other end of her cell phone that told them “we have killed her” was telling the truth.
In published remarks they said it has been seven months since their 24-year-old daughter disappeared during a wave of Islamic extremist violence here, Helen and Dakim Gyang Bot can only assume that the voice on the other end of her cell phone that told them “we have killed her” was telling the truth.
The body of Simi Maltida Kim has not been found, and those who answered the active Catholic’s cell phone shortly after she disappeared on September 1, 2011 did not indicate why they killed her.
However her church believes their daughter was killed because of her Christian faith in Bauchi city in northeastern Bauchi state where she was a final-year student of Science Laboratory Technology at the Federal Polytechnic.
An instructor reportedly troubled her about her faith in Christ and allegedly failed her on an exam in an effort to get her to recant her faith in Christ.
100 KILLED
Islamic violence, often encouraged by Boko Haram, has killed at least over 100 Christians in recent months, and forced thousands of Christians to flee.
“We urge the security services to intensify and continue their efforts towards disrupting and ending Boko Haram’s violent campaign and restoring lasting peace and stability to the country,” said CSW’s Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, has condemned the violence and pledged to beef-up security, though Christians have complained about a lack of security in key areas.
Boko Haram, or ‘Western education is a sin’ has made clear it wants to impose a strict form of Islamic law across the country. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation with more than 160 million people.
It is divided roughly in half between the predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south, according to official estimates.