Christians are fleeing northern Nigeria where bomb blasts rocked the Bauchi and Kano states over the weekend, killing at least 185 people, including Christians, said rights activists and church officials.
Suspected Islamic militants attacked an evangelical church in northeast Nigeria during a worship service late Thursday, January 5, killing at least six people and injuring 10 others, Worthy News learned.
North Korea leads a list of nations where “Christians face the most severe persecution”, but “Muslim-majority” countries represent nine of the top 10 amid spreading Islamic extremism around the world, a major Christian watchdog said in comments obtained by Worthy News.
With a deadline looming to leave their homes or be killed, Christians in northern Nigeria were urged Tuesday, January 3, not to retaliate against Islamic violence.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency as northern parts of Africa’s most populous nation amid mounting concerns about attacks by Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, against especially the Christian population.
At least four people were killed in attacks in the city of Geidam, Nigeria, after vandals set fire to at eight churches, destroyed a police station and then set local shops ablaze.
Islamic militants shouting “Allahu Akbar”, or ‘Allah is great’, carried out coordinated gun and bomb attacks on churches and police stations in northern Nigeria, killing at least 67 people and injuring some 100 others, aid workers and witnesses confirmed Saturday, November 5.
Already shell-shocked by attacks from Boko Haram, a hard-line Muslim group that seeks to impose Shariah (Muslim) law in the northern states of Nigeria, Christians again had to take cover after the August 27 shooting of Mark Ojunta, a 36-year-old evangelist from southern Nigeria ministering to the Kotoko people in one of Nigeria’s northeastern states. This murder comes less that three months after Boko Haram killed a Maiduguri pastor, the same city as Mr. Ojunta.
The Christian community in Nigeria’s central Plateau state are anxiously awaiting the arrival of some 1,300 additional riot police following weeks of sectarian violence that reportedly killed as many as 100 Christians.
Members of the Islamist group Boko Haram have murdered at least 10 Christians in Maiduguri during the last two months in what one Christian leader is calling a “silent killing” of Christians.
A committee of Nigeria’s government was investigating Thursday, August 4, how to overcome rapidly spreading Islamic violence, after two weekend bomb explosions near churches in mainly Muslim areas.
Many churches throughout Nigeria have begun a 21-day fast to invoke divine intervention and protection from Boko Haram, an Islamic cult that has threatened to attack on the anniversary of the death of the sect’s founder.
Pastor Shi Enhao, deputy chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance, has been sentenced to two years of “re-education through labor,” an extra-judicial punishment handed out by police that requires no trial or conviction of a crime, Worthy News has learned.
Two Indian Christians of a thriving Pentecostal house church in Saudi Arabia were back in their home country Sunday, July 24, after they were unexpectedly released by Saudi officials from an overcrowded prison, a church official confirmed to Worthy News.
An Iranian house church Christian was spending another day in brief freedom Thursday, July 21, after he was temporarily released from jail following the payment of a bail amount of some $101,000 in local currency, Iranian Christians said.
Facing a possible death sentence, Eyob Mussie, a Christian refugee living in Saudi Arabia, was instead informed that he will be returned to Eritrea, a nation where returnees often face imprisonment, torture and even death.
Christians prepared for a difficult weekend in Nigeria amid reports of a second bomb attack on a church close to the capital Abuja following deadly violence by suspected Muslim militants that already killed several Christians.
A feud between the Kona and Mumuye tribes in eastern Nigeria has resulted in the deaths of as many as 100 people, including Christians, more than previous estimates, missionaries said.
The United States has condemned reported plans by Iran to execute an Iranian pastor if he does not abandon his faith in Christ, Worthy News established Tuesday, July 12.
Iraq’s first new church under the US occupation opened its doors in the northern city of Kirkuk, the region’s Chaldean archbishop told AFP.