Muslims Kill 31 Christians in Taraba State, Nigeria
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
ABUJA (Worthy News)– On Oct. 19, armed Muslims stormed two churches in Taraba state and killed 31 Christians as they worshipped, according to Morning Star News.
Two pastors and 29 others were slain in the attacks in the villages of Gindin Waya and Sondi, said the Rev. Caleb Ahema, president of the Christian Reformed Church of Christ in Nigeria.
Ahema said the onslaught was the seventh attack on Christian communities in Wukari Local Government Area since February.
“The attack on Christians in Taraba state is a planned genocide against Christians by Islamic insurgents who have invaded the southern part of the state — inhabited mostly by Christians — since February.”
Ahema said that the Muslims wore military uniforms and were members of the Islamist Boko Haram. Haram insurgents based in Borno state have reportedly encouraged ethnic Fulani Muslim herdsmen to attack Christians in Taraba and other states in order to impose Islamic law throughout Nigeria.
While Fulanis have had longstanding property disputes with Christian farmers, church leaders believe these latest attacks on their communities are part of a war by Islam to eliminate Christianity in their country.
“This is the third time that the Muslims have attacked Christians on a Sunday,” Ahema said. “The attack led to the death of four persons in Gindin Waya and 27 persons in Sondi. Among the dead is the pastor of the Sondi church, Nuhu Useni, and his only male child.”
Ahema appealed to the Nigerian government to stop the blood bath.
“Muslims seem determined to wipe out Christians in this country. What is happening? How come Christians have been attacked seven times now, and it seems as if the country has no good security intelligence gathering network?”
Islamic insurgents killed 1,631 Christians in Nigeria during the first six months of 2014. Last year, 1,783 Nigerian Christians were also killed for their faith. The increase in Christian deaths this year accompanies an increase in the total number of people killed by Boko Haram.
While Boko Haram is the moniker residents of Borno state gave the insurgents, the Islamist group calls itself the “Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad” or “The Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad.” The U.S. finally designated Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization late last year.