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.
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.
A kidnapped pastor in Nigeria faced imminent death Wednesday amid fears that authorities had ignored an ultimatum by Islamist militants to save his life.
Pleading for his life, a pastor abducted by Islamic terrorists in northeastern Nigeria on December 24 last year has said on video that his captors will execute him on Wednesday, March 3 if their ransom demands are not met, Morning Star News reports. Pastor Bulus Yikura of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria was (EYN) was abducted during an attack by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) on Pemi village in Borno state; 11 other people were slaughtered during that attack.
The governor of Nigeria’s Zamfara state says 279 girls taken from a school are “now safe,” but concerns remain about 38 others.
Armed terrorists abducted 317 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria’s Kagara state Friday, the Christian Post reports. The mass kidnapping was the second such attack in the state in two weeks, and the latest case in a wave of Nigerian terrorist kidnappings for ransom.
Continuing their reign of terror in Nigeria, Fulani militants murdered six villagers and severely injured many more in an attack in Ogun State Thursday, International Christian Concern reports. As the gratuitous killing of civilians by Fulani terrorists has continued unabated for years, Nigeria’s President Muhammad Buhari, who is also Fulani, has been heavily criticized for failing to keep Nigerians safe from the militants.
The Nigerian government executed six Christian soldiers on trumped-up charges in Abuja last month, a civil rights lawyer has told the Christian Post. According to Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chair of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, the soldiers were framed for a crime committed by one of their superiors.
As Islamist violence against Christians in Nigeria continues unabated, Fulani Muslim herdsmen recently killed two clergymen and burned down a Christian conference hall in the country’s Middle Belt, Morning Star News reports. The chairman of the Niger state Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Mathias Echioda, told Morning Star News: “There’s the urgent need for Nigeria’s government to put an end to these barbaric acts.”
Suspected Islamic Fulani herdsmen have killed a Pentecostal pastor in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta oil hub, Christian rights activists confirmed Thursday.
The deputy vice-chancellor of the Christian Anchor University in Lagos state, Nigeria has reportedly been released after being kidnapped by suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen on Jan. 18, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. John Fatokun is understood to have been released on Wednesday, Jan. 20. Nevertheless, Nigeria ranks number one on the 2021 World Watch List for countries in which Christians are killed for their faith.
A prominent Catholic bishop in Nigeria, kidnapped on December 27, has been released unharmed in an “answer to prayers,” his church said Saturday.
Muslim Fulani militants are continuing to murder Christians in Nigeria, and at least 18 people from Christian communities in Kaduna state were slaughtered in the week leading up to Christmas, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Christian farming communities reportedly faced new attacks and abductions on Christmas Eve by suspected Islamic Fulani fighters who recently killed dozens of Christians.
Families of more than 300 Nigerian kidnapped schoolboys fear they may face similar pressures as Christian schoolgirls abducted earlier by Islamist militants.
The United States added Nigeria to a blacklist of countries that violate religious liberties Monday, DW reports. Joining Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and China, Nigeria is now listed as a country “of concern” “under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.”
Funeral services were underway in northeast Nigeria on Monday after more than 100 people were killed in suspected Islamic attacks over the weekend.
At least 110 farmworkers were slaughtered in a single attack in Nigeria’s Borno state Saturday by terrorists believed to be members of Boko Haram, the Christian Post reports. Armed men on some 60 motorbikes gunned down the rice field workers in what a UN official described as “the most violent direct attack against innocent civilians this year.”
The slaughter of Christians in Nigeria by Muslim Fulani terrorists is continuing: seven Christians were murdered in Kaduna state on Saturday night and Sunday morning (Nov. 28-29), Morning Star News reports. These are just the latest killings of Christians among the many already committed this month.