The US State Department has published its International Religious Freedom (IRF) Report for 2020, providing an overview of religious freedom and persecution around the world, International Christian Concern reports. This year’s IRF condemned countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and China for their abuses of religious freedom, and stated that the US would continue to address the issue.
Islamist militants killed and injured numerous Christians in a church and towns in central and northern Nigeria, Christians confirmed Thursday.
The years-long onslaught of attacks against Christians in Nigeria by Muslim Fulani herdsmen continues with almost no resistance from the government, and 15 more believers were murdered last month, Morning Star News reports. At 3,530, Nigeria saw the world’s highest number of Christians killed for their faith last year.
As Islamic terrorists continue to kidnap Christians in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, in April a pastor’s wife was abducted from her home, two Christian nurses were taken from a hospital and around 70 residents were kidnapped from a single village, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. According to the Open Doors persecution watch group, 990 Christians were kidnapped in Nigeria last year – the highest number anywhere in the world.
Muslim Fulani herdsmen have reportedly killed dozens of Christians in central Nigeria in recent weeks amid ongoing anti-Christian violence in the volatile African nation.
The governor of Nigeria’s Benue State has commended American missionary Pastor William Delvin and Nigerian human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe for rebuilding a church that was destroyed during the 2016 massacre of civilians in the Agatu municipality by Fulani militant herdsmen. After visiting the devastated Agatu community in 2020, Delvin and Ogebe raised necessary funds and organized the rebuilding of the area’s Methodist church in time for its opening on Easter Sunday this year.
Thirty-three Christians were killed in just one week of attacks by suspected Islamist Fulani militants in Nigeria’s Benue state last month, International Christian Concern reports. The murders were among the latest in years of deadly attacks on Nigerian Christian communities by Fulani militants who want to eliminate Christianity and impose Islam in the country.
Government troops in Nigeria’s Plateau state have rescued a boy who was one of four students kidnapped from their Christian mission school by Muslim Fulani herdsmen last month, Morning Star News reports. Kelvin Eze of King’s School was rescued on April 30; the other three students had managed to escape the day before.
Dozens of Christians have been killed by hardline Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s troubled north-central Benue state, Christian survivors said.
In their continued murderous onslaught against Christians, Fulani militants in Nigeria’s Kaduna state killed a believer and abducted five others during an April 25 attack on a Baptist Church in Manini Tasha village, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published its 2021 Annual Report earlier this month, redesignating 10 nations as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) and recommending to the State Department that India, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam now be given that designation as well.
Eight Christians who were abducted by gunmen in Nigeria’s Kaduna state last month have been freed and were taken to hospital for medical evaluation, International Christian Concern reports. Nigeria currently ranks 9th on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be Christian: believers in the northern region and in the Middle Belt are vulnerable to abduction, violence, and murder at the hands of Islamic extremist groups such as militant Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram/ISIS West Africa.
A few days after being kidnapped by gunmen in Ondo state, Nigeria, fifty year-old Pastor Frederick Ojo Aramuwa was found dead in the bush near his hometown of Ifira, International Christian Concern reported Wednesday. Pastor Aramuwa was killed even though his family paid his captors $5,000 in ransom.
Bandits have reportedly abducted eight Christian evangelists in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna State amid an Islamic campaign of targeted kidnappings.
An abducted Christian schoolgirl, who refused to convert to Islam, has given birth to a second child while held captive by Islamist militants, several sources confirmed.
Soldiers in predominantly Muslim armies have been killing their Christian fellow troops alleging they are “infidels”, Israel365 News reports. There have been reports of such murders occurring in Nigeria and Egypt, among other countries.
Terrorists are demanding a ransom of N50million ($122,000) for the release of eight Christian evangelists they abducted in Nigeria’s Kaduna state on Friday, International Christian Concern reports.
At least 137 people have been killed in the deadliest suspected Islamist attack to hit Niger, authorities said Monday.
Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria freed a Christian pastor on Wednesday evening who had been held captive since Christmas Eve, just hours before the ransom deadline expired and he was to be executed.
Islamic militants have released a Nigerian pastor who they threatened to kill unless their demands were met, security sources said. Bulus Yikura of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN) was held captive since December 24, 2020.