Nigeria: Islamic State release video showing execution of 20 Christians
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) has released a video showing the execution of 20 men the group said are Christians in Nigeria’s Borno state, Christian Today (CT) reported Saturday.
As the international community looks on, Nigerian Christians continue to be systematically murdered by Islamic terrorists: Nigeria ranked number one in the world last year for the number of believers murdered on account of their faith.
The ISWAP video was published on the group’s news channel and showed the 20 men being divided into three groups before being shot dead by four terrorists, CT reports.
According to the BBC Monitoring service, both the terrorists and the Christian men were from Borno state in north-eastern Nigeria.
After the second group was killed, one terrorist said on the video: “We shall not rest until we take revenge for our brothers against the Christians all over the world,” CT reported.
The killings were a message to “Christians around the world” that “jihadists will be at war with them … till the end of times,” the terror group said.
In a statement, Jo Newhouse, spokesperson for the Open Doors Christian persecution watchdog organization in Sub-Saharan Africa, said the video was intended to terrorize Christians.
“There are no words to describe the horror and heartbreak that the families of these men must be going through,” Newhouse said.
“However, while ISWAP intends to sow fear with these videos, Christians around the world should be in awe of the testimony of these men who, to the best of our knowledge, held on to their faith even in the face of execution.”
“This video is a call for decisive action by the regional governments and the international community to address the multiple factors that create fertile ground for further radicalization that allows these groups to flourish,” Newhouse stated.
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