The Nigerian army has had some success subduing Islamist group Boko Haram, but Christians are still being killed in Nigeria. Many of the killings are carried out by nomadic Hausa-Fulani herdsmen, a largely Muslim ethnic group that frequently targets the more settled Christian farming communities of central Nigeria. Meanwhile, 12 of Nigeria’s northern states employ Sharia (Islamic law), and Christians in these states face discrimination and restrictions in accessing community resources, such as clean water, health clinics, and higher education.
Nigerian Human Rights Commission calls on President to stop ‘callous’ Kaduna killings
The Nigerian National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to put an end to the ongoing deadly attacks committed by suspected Fulani herdsmen in southern Kaduna.
Nigerian churches criticised for not helping persecuted north
Baroness Cox: there’s ‘a disconnect at every level’ between southern and northern Nigerian churchesBaptist Assembly 2009 Christians in the south of Nigeria are failing to help their persecuted compatriots in the north, according to a veteran humanitarian campaigner. British peer, Baroness Caroline Cox, who has made numerous aid missions […]
UPDATE: Five months after killing of female Nigerian preacher, suspects yet to be named
Mother of seven, Eunice Elisha, was murdered close to Nigeria’s capital, AbujaWorld Watch Monitor Five months after the brutal murder of a 42-year-old female preacher in Kubwa, a suburb of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, the police are yet to name the perpetrators. Eunice Elisha, an indigene of Nigeria’s southern State […]
Nigeria: Kebbi Christians face latent pressure to abandon faith
While violent attacks on Christians at the hands of Islamist militants Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen in the northeast and Middle Belt of Nigeria have captured media attention, the persistent social pressures Christians face elsewhere go mostly unnoticed. Despite common misperceptions that they are a minority across the north […]
Two ‘young girls’ used as human bombs in Nigeria
Two girls said to be aged seven or eight have been used to bomb a market in Maiduguri, in north-east Nigeria, killing at least one other person and wounding 18. Both girls were killed as they detonated their explosives minutes apart, witnesses said. Police said the attacks happened when the […]
Boko Haram’s survivors now facing HIV/AIDS
At least 5,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in 27 camps in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno State have HIV/AIDS, a local official has revealed. Speaking to the media on Thursday (1 Dec.), Hassan Mustapha, the Coordinator on HIV/AIDS in Borno, said most of the patients were women who were rescued from captivity in […]
NE Nigeria has ‘more refugees than all of Europe’
“North-east Nigeria has been hit by a displacement crisis that dwarfs any migration flows seen in Europe in recent years,” reports . The small town of Monguno in Borno state, which has a population of 60,000, is sheltering 140,000 Nigerians who have fled their homes – comparable to the number […]
Boko Haram still active in northeast Nigeria
With the onset of the dry season in northern Nigeria (Oct-March), Boko Haram attacks have been on the increase. Yaga Yarkawa, the chairman of the Chibok Local Government Area – infamous as the scene of the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls two years ago – told journalists on Tuesday (22 Nov.) […]
Victims of Boko Haram, Fulani violence to receive trauma counselling
A trauma care centre is being constructed in Nigeria to support Christians who have suffered religiously motivated violence or abuse at the hands of Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. The centre is being built by Open Doors International, a charity which supports Christians under pressure for their faith. In April, […]
Nigerian girls abducted, forced to convert, marry
More details have emerged of the scale of abductions, forced conversions and then marriage of Christian girls in northern Nigeria. For instance, in the state of Kano in the last five years, over 40 Christian girls have been abducted and Islamised, and many married to Muslims. But locals say many […]