With Nearly 200 Killed Over Christmas, Christian Villages in Nigeria Are Reeling After Dayslong Attacks

[Michie]

According to accounts by several local news sources and human rights activists, 198 Christians were killed in a series of terror attacks in 26 Christian communities in Plateau.

Catholic and Nigerian leaders are demanding government action as Christian villages in the central Nigerian state of Plateau are reeling from a series of Christmas weekend attacks that left nearly 200 Christian Nigerians dead.

Photos obtained by CNA show victims of the attacks being buried in mass graves, underscoring the scale of the bloodshed.

“This indeed has been a gory Christmas for us,” Plateau governor Caleb Mutfwang said in a Tuesday statement that noted the attacks were “well-coordinated” and carried out using “heavy weapons.”

Bishop Matthew Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese in northern Nigeria meanwhile called on the newly elected Nigerian president Bola Tinubu to take immediate action to protect the Nigerian people, telling him: “You have no excuses before God or the people of Nigeria” and that “neither God nor history will forgive you if you fail.”

The bishop’s address, which was published by the Nigeria Catholic Network, also emphasized that “Nigerians have almost lost hope” that “a government can really and truly care for them” and that “our politicians will put our interests first and find a way to deal with the cancer of corruption.”

According to accounts by several local news sources and human rights activists, 198 Christians were killed in a series of terror attacks in 26 Christian communities in Plateau. The attacks began the night of Dec. 23 and continued through Christmas Day.

Continued below.

With Nearly 200 Killed Over Christmas, Christian Villages in Nigeria Are Reeling After Dayslong Attacks

According to accounts by several local news sources and human rights activists, 198 Christians were killed in a series of terror attacks in 26 Christian communities in Plateau.

www.ncregister.com

 

[RileyG]

May they rest in peace and rise to glory!

 

[Michie]

Nigerian priest spends Christmas burying parishioners

Massacre claimed about 160 lives in north central Nigerian state of Plateau, long plagued by conflict with Fulani herdsmen.

aleteia.org

 

[mourningdove~]

World looks other way as Christians 'killed for sport' by jihadists in Nigeria​

JOHANNESBURG — A never-ending massacre of Christians being "killed for sport" is reportedly happening in Nigeria, yet the world appears to be largely deaf to the matter.

While much of the world this week has been celebrating a beginning – Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ – in Nigeria they are mourning the end of life – the deaths of more than 100 Christians – as the world remains virtually silent.

Armed bandits ran amok, according to Amnesty International, in some 20 communities across central Nigeria, killing more than 140. In a country where accurate statistics are traditionally hard to come by, some sources have put the death toll closer to 200.

The Christians were killed in a wide swath across an invisible line that separates the mostly Muslim north and the predominately Christian south in the country’s Plateau State. According to multiple sources, Christians represent 46% of Nigeria’s population.

"There was yet another Christmas massacre of Christians in Nigeria yesterday. The world is --- silent. Just unbelievable," tweeted leading evangelist the Rev. Johnnie Moore on X, formerly Twitter.

More than 52,000 Christians "have been butchered or hacked to death for being Christians" since 2009 in Nigeria, according to Intersociety, a civil society group based in Onitsha.

"The U.S. Mission in Nigeria condemned the recent attacks in Plateau State and expressed heartfelt condolences for the tragic loss of life," a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. Calling for accountability, the spokesperson added, "We are deeply concerned by the violence, and we are monitoring the situation."

"The single worst place in the world to be a Christian is in western Africa, particularly in parts of Nigeria," the Rev. Johnnie Moore told Fox News Digital. Moore is a former commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, and co-author of "The Next Jihad."

"When ISIS was at its height in Iraq and Syria in 2015, terrorists in one single state in Nigeria killed more Christians than all of those killed by the ISIS caliphate in Syria and in Iraq combined," Moore told Fox News Digital.

"Not a day goes by when Christians are not terrorized in western Africa in the most grotesque ways imaginable," he continued. "Christians are killed for sport, especially Christian children. For every massacre which you hear about there are probably ten others which happened in the shadows. The death tolls are routinely in the hundreds."

"Entire villages are burnt and pillaged. Thousands of churches have been destroyed. Children and women are hunted. Countless Christians have been kidnapped. I met one pastor whose two previous churches were burned down. Yet, he stayed in harm's way because he was determined to be a light in the darkness, even if it [costs] him his life, and it probably will."

MSN

 

[mourningdove~]

What is happening in Africa is horrible ... absolutely horrible.
But I think it would be wise to become aware of it ...
the immense suffering our brothers and sisters in Christ are experiencing there ...
as we could easily see this soon happening here in America ...
with all the illegals that continue to flood thru our borders ...

Africa

 

[Michie]

Nigeria's sorrow is 'overflowing,' bishop says after Christians massacred over Christmas

Gov. Caleb Mutfwang of Nigeria's Plateau state declared a week of mourning Jan. 1-8 to honor the deaths of at least 200 Christians killed over Christmas by Fulani Muslim herders, targeting Christians in the country. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, said the attackers are "children...

www.oursundayvisitor.com