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.
Boko Haram victim ‘left for dead’ in 2012 loses sister and her two children in church bomb
The sister of a man whose miraculous survival from a shot in the head by Boko Haram took him to testify to the US Congress, has been killed with two of her children. Tabita Adamu, 44, her 18-year-old daughter, Haske, and 11-year-old son, Nuhu died in the July 5 bomb […]
Killings escalate in Nigeria
The suicide bombing of a church in Nigeria on Sunday caps a week of killings that has left over 200 people dead, reports the BBC. In the first incident six worshippers were killed as they were entering a church in Potiskum in the north-east area where until recently Boko Haram […]
Chibok girls ‘forced to kill’ for Boko Haram
Some of the kidnapped Chibok girls have been forced to join Boko Haram and carry out killings, the BBC has been told. Witnesses who escaped from the same camps that were holding some of the Chibok girls said they have been brainwashed and are being used to terrorise other captives […]
Buhari takes office after election ‘miracle’
Muhammadu Buhari will be sworn in today (May 29) as the new President of Nigeria, two months after he became the first opposition leader to win an election. On March 28, Buhari, a former general, defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan by a 54-46 margin – the first time the opposition had […]
5,000 killed, 100,000 displaced by Boko Haram
A new report has highlighted the scope of Boko Haram’s attacks against Christians in north-east Nigeria. More than 5,000 Catholics have been killed, 100,000 displaced and 350 churches attacked – “a good number of them destroyed more than once” – according to the ‘Situation Report’ from the Diocese of Maiduguri, […]
Corruption threatening Nigeria, not religion
Nigeria’s major problem is neither ethnic nor religious but corruption, which has remained endemic and entrenched, said President-elect Muhammadu Buhari. Nigeria’s Christians, especially those in the troubled northeast, have expressed concerns over the election of the former military ruler, who once endorsed the full implementation of sharia (Islamic law) throughout […]
Good news in Nigeria, but not for Chibok girls, yet
Some of the hundreds of people, mostly women and children, rescued from Boko Haram camps in Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest, in early May 2015.Photo courtesy Open Doors International The tide may have turned against Boko Haram, at least for the moment. Camps in the Sambisa forest – said to be […]
100s rescued from Boko Haram camps
The Nigerian army has rescued about 200 girls and 93 women from Boko Haram camps in the Sambisa Forest. Its spokesman said the freed hostages have yet to be fully identified but confirmed that the abducted Chibok schoolgirls were not among them. ‘The rescue is a rare piece of good news from northeast […]
A year gone
A year later, the parents are still crying. It was April 14, 2014 when militants of the radical Islamic group Boko Haram kidnapped about 275 teenage school girls from Chibok, a predominantly Christian village in northeastern Nigeria. Some 232 of them are still missing, and for much of the year, […]
Hope – and anxiety – after Buhari’s win
Former Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress candidate for president, at Chatham House in London in February 2015.Flickr / Chatham House / Creative Commons Nigeria’s Christians, especially those in the troubled northeast, had a good reason to be worried that Muhammadu Buhari would be elected president. The former […]