UN ‘appalled’ by twin jihadist attacks in Nigeria

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Nigeria Armed gangs Wipe out 15
villages in mass Christian slaughter

ARMED men stormed through 15 villages to massacre Christians and destroy their churches in a violent crackdown against the religion in Nigeria

Dozens of people have been killed after the gangs ransacked towns and villages to clear them of all aspects of the Christian faith.

Houses belonging to believers have also been razed with authorities doing little to help, an anti-persecution watchdog claimed.

Open Doors spoke to one Christian who described the broad daylight attack carried out by a group of Fulani - one of Africa’s largest ethnicities.

A spokeswoman said: “One attack took place in broad daylight, as people were about to go to church.

“The assailants chased and killed the villagers and burned down nine churches and many more houses.”

Christian persecution is a major problem in Nigeria which has been exacerbated by the spread of radical Islamic teaching and practice.

The shocked witness said Christians needed more protection from the country’s leader or lives would continue to be lost.

They said: “Despite several calls to the governor and his deputy, and other security apparatus, the government remained silent as the atrocities continued.

“The Fulani were able to carry out their deadly attack. They stayed for hours in the vicinity, moving at will, unchallenged.”

Details of the attack, which took place in north-eastern state of Adamawa earlier this year, have only just emerged.

In the central state of Nasarawa, 25 villages have been destroyed since January 15.

Again, the predominately Christian victims said they had been abandoned by leaders.

A spokesman for the Concerned Indigenous Tiv People group said: “Since the outbreak of the crisis on January 15 this year, due to the Fulani /herdsmen attack on our villages, leading to the displacement of Tiv in their ancestral homes, the Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Almakura, has done very little to bring the situation under control.”

Other attacks have taken place in Benue State and across the Middle Belt region of the country. The Army has now been deployed to certain areas in order to stop the violence.

A spokeswoman for Open Doors said: “Believers experience discrimination and exclusion, and violence from militant Islamic groups, resulting in the loss of property, land, livelihood, physical injury or death; this is spreading southwards.

“Corruption has enfeebled the state and made it ill-equipped to protect Christians. Rivalry between ethnic groups and raids by Fulani herdsmen compound the persecution. Converts face rejection from their Muslim families and pressure to recant.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/91 ... c-Nasarawa

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Hundreds of Christians killed in Nigeria attacks

From February through mid-March, as many as 280 people in Christian communities in northern and middle Nigeria were killed in attacks

Islamic Hausa-Fulani militants and Boko Haram continue to attack Christians in the country — in 2018, there were thousands killed.

Last week, 52 women and children were killed and 100 homes were destroyed in attacks on the Inkirimi and Dogonnoma villages in Maro, Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA), according to the Christian Broadcasting Network.

Thousands are displaced after so much violence has forced them to flee their homes. People who survived recent attacks have appeared in photos with machete wounds and burns from fires, according to CSW, an advocacy group supporting Christians worldwide.

Nigeria ranks as the 12th worst in the world for Christian persecution, according to the Open Doors USA's 2019 World Watch List . Parts of Nigeria treat Christians as second-class citizens and many face persecution from their own families, Open Doors USA says.

The southern part of the country has a bit more respect for religious freedom, advocates say.

Nigerians recently went to the polls to elect a new president and chose Muhammadu Buhari, 76, from the All Progressives Congress, according to the BBC. The candidate representing the People's Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has filed a legal challenge to the results , Reuters reported today.

Abubakar alleges there were irregularities. Buhari's campaign says the vote was free and fair, Reuters reports

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/worl ... ia-attacks

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22,000 Nigerians missing
in Boko Haram crisis

Abuja, Nigeria - At least 22,000 people are missing in Nigeria due to the decade-long conflict with the Boko Haram group, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said

In a statement, ICRC President Peter Maurer said nearly 60 percent of those missing were children and that it was the highest number of missing persons registered with the organisation in any country.

"They were minors when they went missing, meaning thousands of parents don't know where their children are and if they are alive or dead," he said on Thursday at the end of his five-day trip to Nigeria.

"Every parent's worst nightmare is not knowing where their child is. This is the tragic reality for thousands of Nigerian parents."

Nigeria is faced with multiple conflicts, including attacks by the Boko Haram and the frequent clashes between the nomadic herders and the farmers.

Boko Haram - whose name roughly translates to "Western education is forbidden" - wants to establish an Islamic state based on a strict interpretation of the Islamic law.

The United Nations estimates that more than 27,000 people have been killed and an estimated two million others displaced in Nigeria's northeast because of the violence by the Boko Haram.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria's central states, clashes between farmers and nomadic herders over dwindling arable land have also killed thousands and displaced tens of thousands.

'We have no hope'

In 2015, the Nigerian military launched "Operation Lafiya Dole" to force the Boko Haram out of the country's northeast.

But it is the families of those missing, mainly in the urban centres of Borno state in Nigeria's northeast, who are forced to deal with the trauma.

"My father is traumatised. He goes out looking for my brother from time to time, hoping he will be found," 43-year-old Noami Abwaku told Al Jazeera about her brother Yerima Abwaku, a civil servant who disappeared on October 30, 2015.

She said her 53-year-old brother worked in a government school in Maiduguri, the epicentre of Boko Haram attacks.

"At this point, we have no hope because many like Yerima went missing around that time and they've not been found," Noami Abwaku said. "Three of my colleagues in office also went in the same period."

Boko Haram still occupies large expanses of the Nigerian countryside, mainly in the northeast and has a stronghold around the Lake Chad region bordering Cameroon and Niger.

Analyst Cheta Nwanze told Al Jazeera that the number of missing persons is not surprising and blamed it on a "notoriously lax" administration.

"It is a logical consequence of the fact that we consistently report not the names of the people missing, but just the numbers. To solve this, we must improve the accountability system," he said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/ ... 30103.html

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Twin jihadist attacks in Nigeria

UN appalled as dozens of soldiers and civilians are reported to have been killed in twin attacks by Islamist militants in north-eastern Nigeria's Borno state

Fighters attacked Monguno, a garrison town where UN and other aid workers are based, and a village in Nganzai.

The UN said it was "appalled" by the raids that came days after at least 81 villagers were killed in Gubio.

A Boko Haram faction calling itself the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) says it is behind all three attacks.

The splinter group declared its loyalty to the Islamic State group four years ago.

What do we know about the attacks?

At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians are said to have been killed in the two attacks.

People from Goni Usmanti village in Nganzai told the AFP news agency that militants shot dead 38 people and set a truck on fire with passengers inside.

Security sources and residents said at least 15 people, including nine soldiers, died in Monguno town, which is about 60km (37 miles) away.

Militants armed with heavy weapons including rocket launchers arrived in Monguno, a base for many international non-governmental organisations, on Saturday morning, overrunning government forces in the area.

In a statement, the UN confirmed that "non-state armed group operatives" entered Monguno in the late morning.

"Several" civilians, including a four-year old girl, were killed, it said, while at least 37 other civilians were injured.

Although vehicles were set ablaze and an unexploded missile found outside the main humanitarian facility, it was not seriously damaged.

"Protective security measures deployed at the humanitarian hub prevented any harm to the over 50 aid workers who were in the facility at the time of the attack," the UN said.

Reports say hundreds of civilians were injured in Nganzai and the local hospital was overwhelmed, forcing some of the injured to lie outside awaiting help.

The militants then distributed letters to residents, in the local Hausa language, warning them not to work with the military or international aid groups, the BBC's Chris Ewokor reports from the capital, Abuja.

Iswap does not usually target civilians unless they are working with Western aid agencies, or suspected of providing information to the army.

What has the reaction been?

"I am relieved all staff are safe and secure, but I am shocked by the intensity of this attack," said Edward Kallon, UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Nigeria.

The Nigerian military said that its forces had "successfully repelled" the attack on Monguno and killed 20 jihadists.

It did not mention any casualties among soldiers and civilians or the attack in Nganzai.

More than 100,000 of Monguno's residents are people who have been displaced from their homes by the 10-year conflict in the region.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-53041886