Tag: Nigeria

‘Risk of genocide’ linked with level of religious freedom

July 25, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Genocide, Houthis, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, UN, Yemen

The civil war in Yemen has displaced over 3 million people like this woman who is sitting under a makeshift shelter at a camp for internally displaced persons in the northern district of Abs in Yemen's Hajjah province, on July 23, 2017 (Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

Yemen is the country where the risk of genocide, or mass killing, rose most last year, says Minority Rights Group International (MRG) in its 2017 Peoples Under Threat index, which also includes a large number of countries in which it is most difficult to live as a Christian. Nine of . . . Read More

Four Chibok girls to start university in US in August

July 21, 2017 Nigeria Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Education, Nigeria

It’s many thousands of miles from the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno, Nigeria, to university in the United States. But, following their kidnapping on 14 April 2014, it’s a journey that a handful of young girls from remote, rural north-eastern Nigeria have now made. (Their fellow escapees remain in Nigeria, . . . Read More

Nigerian President’s ongoing medical treatment raises fears of yet more sectarian power struggles

July 13, 2017 Nigeria APC, Katsina, Lagos, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria

In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has not been seen in public for more than two months, raising fears of a power struggle over who might succeed him, which could lead to sectarian violence in Africa’s most populous country. Because Nigeria is divided between a mostly Muslim north and a predominantly . . . Read More

Lake Chad Basin crisis to dominate African Union Summit

June 27, 2017 Addis Ababa, African Union, Benin, Boko Haram, Borno, Cameroon, Chad, Lake Chad, Maiduguri, Muhammadu Buhari, Niger, Nigeria

As the 29th African Union (AU) Summit begins today (27 June), one of the major talking points will be the “now-major conflict zone” of the Lake Chad Basin, writes Omar S Mahmood, analyst at The Institute for Security Studies. The UN has described the situation in north-eastern Nigeria – one . . . Read More

Persecution ‘key driver of displacement’ says UNHCR, voicing concerns about returns

June 20, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Boko Haram, Converts, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Europe, Fulani herdsmen, Islamic extremism, Middle Belt, Migrants, Nigeria, Refugees, South Sudan, Syria, Uganda, UN

More people are currently displaced through conflict and persecution than at any time since the Second World War. According to the Global Trends report, published by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2016. The report noted that the number of refugee returns . . . Read More

Deadly conflict tearing Nigeria apart (and it’s not Boko Haram)

June 15, 2017 Nigeria Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Kaduna, Kafanchan, Middle Belt, Nigeria, West Africa

In Nigeria, it’s not only the northeast regions, stronghold of the radical Islamic sect Boko Haram, that have been the scene of severe violence. The Middle Belt of the country is also the scene of ever-continuing attacks on Christian farmers by mainly Muslim Hausa-Fulani herdsmen, as a report from IRIN . . . Read More

Archbishop of Canterbury: ‘Conservative attitudes can be passport for misogyny’

June 8, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Belgium, Boko Haram, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Justin Welby, Kidnapping, Nigeria, Pakistan, Punjab, Religious freedom, Trauma, Women

Women are often subject to discrimination and rejection due to social, legal and cultural norms, especially in patriarchal societies. (Photo: Open Doors International)

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said that sometimes “[religiously] conservative attitudes are a passport for misogyny, while at other times they are simply inherited attitudes”. His comment came two days after a consultation about Christian women under pressure for their faith, where speakers noted that women living in highly . . . Read More

African mission leader searches for positives despite deadly surge of jihadist violence

May 30, 2017 Africa, Boko Haram, Burkina Faso, Europe, Garissa, Gloria Argoti, Islamic extremism, Ivory Coast, Jeff Woodke, Ken Elliott, Lagos, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia

Attacks attributed to radical Islamic groups are happening on a weekly, or even daily, basis in Africa, posing security concerns across a vast swathe of the continent. The phenomenon has dramatically affected Church activities in various regions. But Rev. Reuben E. Ezemadu, Coordinator of the Movement for African National Initiatives . . . Read More

Chibok escapee ‘not one of 276’, exactly a year after first girl found. 113 still missing

May 19, 2017 Nigeria Boko Haram, Chibok girls, Nigeria

A lone schoolgirl abducted from Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram has managed to escape, and has been found by Nigeria’s government troops earlier this week, reports the BBC. However, although from the same school as the 276 kidnapped in one night April 14, 2014, she was . . . Read More

US Commission urges Trump administration to prioritise international religious freedom

May 18, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Abune Antonios, Andrew Brunson, Central African Republic, China, Donald Trump, Eritrea, Eritrean Orthodox Church, Iran, Mike Pence, Myanmar, Nguyen Cong Chinh, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Religious freedom, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

An influential US government commission that monitors religious freedom around the world is urging President Donald Trump and his new administration to take concrete steps to make advocacy of universal religious rights a priority in American foreign policy. “Our foreign policy should not simply be about US self-interest – you know, . . . Read More

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