‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the state, not a Christian was stirring, because those who dared attend services in Nigeria that night risked their very lives.
At least twelve Christians were killed by gunmen in separate attacks; the assailants are suspected to be militant members of Boko Haram, an Islamist group that has already killed nearly 100 Christians around Christmas in Nigeria over the past three years.
Christian groups have petitioned the U.S. government to designate the African Islamist group Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, but that designation is opposed by Nigeria’s own government.
Suspected Islamic militants have killed at least ten Christians, including a pastor, and torched several churches in the latest anti-Christian violence to hit Nigeria, a well-informed human rights group confirmed.
Gunmen have attacked a police station near Nigeria’s capital Abuja that holds members of the feared Islamic group ‘Boko Haram’, freeing prisoners and killing two police officers, officials said.
At least five people were killed and dozens injured Sunday, November 25, when a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into a church inside the Jaji military barracks in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna state, officials said.
The recent suicide bombing of a Catholic church in northern Nigeria was denounced by the Archbishop of Kaduna.
At least hundreds of residents began fleeing northeastern Nigeria Sunday, October 21, after three days of Islamic attacks against churches and other targets left dozens dead.
An Indian evangelical pastor was recovering of injuries, after he and his family were beaten by “anti-Christian” Hindu extremists near the capital New Delhi, a major mission group and relatives said.
A grenade attack by suspected Islamist militants rocked an Anglican church in Kenya’s capital Nairobi killing a nine-year-old boy and injuring several others, the church and police said Sunday, September 30.
Nigerian police have arrested a government official after Islamic militants killed 19 Christian worshipers during a church service in the town of Otite, Kogi State, on August 6.
In an online video released last week, the militant Muslim group Boko Haram demanded that Nigeria’s Christian president either convert to Islam, or resign.
Suspected Islamic militants opened fire at an evangelical church in central Nigeria killing at least 19 people before Bible study began and, in a separate attack, shot and killed a colleague of a Nigerian evangelist and Worthy News stringer, several sources confirmed early Wednesday, August 8.
A Christian mission leader “kidnapped by terrorists” in north-eastern India has been released and was with his wife and children Tuesday, July 31, unharmed, missionaries said.
As the number of murders by a militant Islamic group in Nigeria continue to grow, some Congressmen are questioning the Obama administration’s refusal to officially designate it as a terrorist organization.
During the last two months, Christians in the Southern India village of Vanagiri Menavar have been banned from corporate worship and their children refused access to school, but now Hindu leaders have banned them from fishing.
Nigerian authorities said Sunday, July 8, that at least 63 people were killed when suspected Muslim herdsmen armed with guns and machetes stormed Christian villages, while missionaries claimed over 50 pastors and missionary leaders died in separate violence.
About 30 Sangha Parivar activists forcibly entered Immanuel Sakineh House Church and began attacking the congregation, alleging that they were involved in the forcible and fraudulent conversion of Hindus to Christianity; after destroying all the Bibles and Christian literature they could find, the activists then phoned the Basappakatte police station who immediately took Pastor Mounesh into custody for further inquiry.
Nigerian authorities said Sunday, July 8 that dozens of people have been killed after suspected Muslim herdsmen armed with guns and machetes stormed Christian villages, while missionaries claimed at least 50 pastors and missionary leaders were killed in separate violence.
Three violent African Islamist groups are now networking together to further their attacks against that continent’s Christians.
As the Islamists of Boko Haram continue to terrorize northern Nigeria, local residents are still reeling from the bombing of three of Kaduna’s churches weeks ago.