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“Nigeria at the Epicenter of Targeted Violence Against the Church,” Four Christians Kidnapped in Benue State

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – As rights groups now gauge the level of violence against Christians in Nigeria at “100%,” Islamic terrorists in central Nigeria ambushed and kidnapped four Christians in Benue state on Jan. 13, Morning Star News reports. The Open Doors international Christian persecution watchdog has given Nigeria the highest percentage rating for violence against believers, stating that the country is now “at the epicenter of targeted violence against the church.”

The Rev. Haanongon Gideon, a pastor and council member of Benue’s Ukum Local Government Area, was ambushed together with three other men as they traveled along the Katsina-Ala-Zaki Biam Highway on their way to a funeral, MSN reports. In a statement to MSN, Benue state spokesman Matthew Abo said the pastor and his colleagues were kidnapped by “armed Muslim terrorists,” Abo said.

As in other Nigerian states where Islamic jihadist groups, including radicalized Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, and Islamic State, have taken root, Christians in Benue state have been repeatedly violently attacked, with many murdered and kidnapped and many others displaced. “Christians have become vulnerable to these attacks,” Emmanuel Odeh, an area community leader, told MSN. “The invaders use forests and mountainous areas as bases for their operations and nefarious activities.”

Well over 52,000 Nigerian Christians have been slaughtered, and many thousands have been kidnapped and/or by Islamic jihadists since 2009. Accordingly, the US Commission on International Religion Freedom has long sounded the warning of genocide against Nigerian believers, referring to Nigeria as a “killing field for Christians.”

Nevertheless, Nigeria’s federal government and the international community have turned a blind eye. “Truth is, they lack the will to curtail these terrorist activities,” Odeh said.