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Anti-Christian violence rages on in Nigeria: pastor slain and village razed

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Published: Friday 24 June 2011

Anti-Christian violence rages on in Nigeria: pastor slain and village razed

Project(s): 00-345

Country: Nigeria, Africa

“The attackers burned not only the church but the entire village. All living and non-living things were set ablaze.”

Rt Rev'd Yusuf I. Janfalan, Bishop of Ikara, Nigeria

The church building in Ung. Kerau was destroyed by a mob of Muslim militants

Two tragic stories from Northern Nigeria, recently received by Barnabas Fund, graphically illustrate the brutality of anti-Christian violence in the region following April’s presidential election.

A Nigerian missionary pastor in Bauchi State was tortured and murdered by a group of Muslims when he refused to renounce his faith in Christ. And an entire Christian village in Kaduna State was burned to ashes by a mob of Muslim militants and its water supply contaminated.

Death and destruction

The pastor was travelling in a van when it was pulled over by Muslims posing as police. They asked if anyone in the vehicle was a Christian, and the pastor said that he was. The men pulled him out of the van and told him repeatedly to renounce Christ. When he refused, they first beat him, then gouged out his eyes, and finally killed him and burned his body. He leaves a widow and eight children.

On 18 April the village of Ung. Kerau was attacked by more than 300 men armed with various weapons. The Christian villagers fled, and the mob torched the village, including the church. An estimated 183 buildings, both homes and storerooms, were burned.

The Church of Nigeria Bishop of Ikara, the Rt Rev’d Yusuf Ishaya Janfalan, wrote:

[The villagers] were drinking from two wells. But when the mobs arrived they broke their store rooms, carried pepper and poured inside the well. They also poured their clothes, mortars, firewood and all sort of rubbish inside the well. We have stopped the villagers from drinking from the well, as we are suspecting that the mobs poisoned the well.

The pastor’s house in Ikara, torched in the anti-Christian violence

The bishop said that the (approximately) 300 villagers were peasant farmers who “were attacked simply because they are Christians”. He reported that two other churches and a vicarage in the same region had also been destroyed.

Christians and churches in Northern Nigeria have come under sustained attack since the re-election of Christian President Goodluck Jonathan in April. Supporters of defeated Muslim candidate Muhammadu Buhari have been taking out their anger on Christian communities. Around 200 churches have been burned or destroyed and over 1,200 houses razed, and at least 800 people are estimated to have been killed in the riots.

Help for the suffering

Barnabas Fund is supporting the murdered pastor’s widow and children. Our grant will help them with food, repairs to their home, and counselling in their distress.

We are also sending funds to help other victims of the post-election violence, and some of these will be used to provide a new borehole for drinking water for the villagers of Ung. Kerau.

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, said:

These harrowing accounts of cruel attacks on our Christian brothers and sisters in Northern Nigeria bring home to us the severe dangers that they face. The essentials of life, and even their loved ones, can all too easily be taken from them in such fierce acts of violence. Please help us to meet their most urgent needs.

Give Today

If you would like to help Christian victims of the violence in Nigeria, please send your donation to 00-345 (Victims of Violence Fund). Please click to donate online using our secure server.

If you prefer to telephone, dial: 0800 587 4006 from within the UK or +44 1672 565031 from outside the UK. Please quote project reference 00-345 (Victims of Violence Fund).

If you prefer to send a cheque by post: Click this link for the address of our regional office. Please quote project reference 00-345 (Victims of Violence Fund).

For a quick donation of £3.00 by SMS (see terms and conditions here) text Barnabas/345 to70007 (Please note: This facility is presently only available to UK supporters).

Please Pray:

For the widow and eight children of the murdered pastor, that the Lord will give them His comfort and peace in their grief and loss.
For the villagers of Ung. Kerau, that they may be able to rebuild their village and their lives, and that they may suffer no further violence.
For the Nigerian authorities, that they will have wisdom and courage to stop the anti-Christian attacks and to bring those responsible to justice.

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