Tag: Boko Haram

‘Chibok girl’ asks parents to ‘embrace Islam’ in Boko Haram video

January 15, 2018 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Chibok girls, Nigeria

Boko Haram has released a video purporting to show some of the Chibok schoolgirls still in captivity. “In the video, a girl dressed in a full niqab [Islamic dress] appeals to her parents to embrace Islam,” the BBC’s Stephanie Hegarty reports. “Dressed in a blue and white niqab, the young . . . Read More

‘Unprecedented’ persecution of Egypt’s Christians heads 2018 World Watch List

January 10, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Anti-conversion law, Boko Haram, Cairo, Central Asia, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, Eritrea, Fulani herdsmen, Hindu nationalism, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jharkhand, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Marawi, Middle Belt, Middle East, Mindanao, Minorities, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Philippines, Somalia, Southeast Asia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Upper Egypt

More Christians abused in India than in all other countries combined; Nepal enters list Islamic extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria are behind a new intensity of Christian persecution in surrounding countries, says global charity Open Doors in its latest annual survey of countries where it is most difficult . . . Read More

Another Chibok girl rescued, 112 still missing

January 5, 2018 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Chibok girls, Nigeria

The Nigerian Army says it has rescued one of the schoolgirls abducted by the radical Islamic group Boko Haram from the north-eastern town of Chibok in 2014. The girl, identified as Salomi Pogu, was found on 4 January in Pulka, in the north-eastern state of Borno, said the Army in . . . Read More

Nigeria: Government failure and the spread of Fulani herdsmen attacks in Adamawa state

December 11, 2017 Nigeria Adamawa, Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Nigeria, Sultan of Sokoto

”I watched helplessly as the Fulani herdsmen killed people and burnt houses. They did this with glee on their faces. Numan [Local Government Area] and its environs belong to us. If the government cannot protect us, then we have no choice but to protect our land, our heritage and the . . . Read More

Nigeria: Boko Haram survivor and her baby ‘shamed’

December 1, 2017 Nigeria Acid attacks, Boko Haram, Borno, Converts, Gwoza, Islamic extremism, Nigeria, Rape, Trauma, UN, West Africa, Women

Boko Haram survivor Esther*, holding her daughter Rebecca in her arms. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

As Islamic extremist group Boko Haram continues to hold young women captive in West Africa, some have been rescued only to return to their homes in shame, finding themselves labelled “Boko Haram women”. Until October 2015 Esther* lived the normal life of a 17-year-old in Gwoza, a town in southern . . . Read More

Persistent Fulani violence ‘indicates ethnic cleansing’ of Nigerian Christians

November 14, 2017 Nigeria Benue, Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Middle Belt, Nigeria

A new report detailing the sustained attack on Christian communities by Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s central state of Benue concludes that the number and ferocity of incidents is evidence of ethnic cleansing. Further, signs of ethnic cleansing on Christian communities “are likely to become increasingly evident” in light of a . . . Read More

Nigeria: girl, 13, kidnapped to be converted to Islam, freed four days later

November 6, 2017 Nigeria Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Nigeria, Yobe

A pastor’s 13-year-old daughter, kidnapped in northeast Nigeria last week to be converted to Islam and married off, was released yesterday (5 November) after four days in captivity. Hauwa Dadi, from the village of Gashua in Yobe State, is the daughter of the former local secretary of the Christian Association . . . Read More

Cameroon: 6 siblings kidnapped by Boko Haram escape to safety

October 31, 2017 Cameroon Boko Haram, Cameroon, Children, Far North, Nigeria

Six siblings kidnapped from Moskota in the Far North region of Cameroon on 17 August have been found near the border with Nigeria by a group of vigilantes. A local source told World Watch Monitor that the children, between the ages of three and 15, had been taken to Nigeria, . . . Read More

Niger: pastor’s daughter kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram militants

October 17, 2017 Niger Boko Haram, Charlie Hebdo, Diffa, Lake Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Sahel, West Africa

Street scene in Zinder, Niger's second biggest town, where thousands of people fled to after Boko Haram first attacked Diffa in February 2015. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The teenage daughter of a pastor was kidnapped on 16 October in Diffa, south-eastern Niger, in what appears to be the first targeted kidnapping of a Christian by Boko Haram-affiliated militants in the West African nation. Aphodiya Garba Maida, 17, daughter of a pastor with the EERN (Église Évangélique de . . . Read More

Behind Nigeria persecution ‘lies prejudice, weak leadership, corruption, historic grievance’

October 13, 2017 Nigeria Boko Haram, Catholics, Islamic extremism, Nigeria, Sharia

Support for the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram is a reaction to Western-backed corruption, colonial-era intervention and weak Nigerian leadership, a Catholic archbishop has said. Archbishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto in north-western Nigeria told World Watch Monitor that sympathy for the extremist group in northern Nigeria’s majority-Muslim states was fuelled . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye