NIGERIA THREAD

[doug3]

Please see http://bibleforums.org/showthread.ph...d-in-reprisals

[doug3]

From the BBC:

' “Only God knows how I escaped from that Maidugari*. They bomb over there. All my property, all my things are there,” said the young electronics trader, before letting out a short scream. “My parents, my brother and one of my sons died there” '.

An article by Mark Lobel, a BBC journalist, published online yesterday (March 16th), gives several harrowing accounts by traumatized Christians who have managed to flee to southern Nigeria. Their escape has been possible thanks to “a free bus service provided by elders from the south-eastern Igbo community[mainly Christian], in response to a threat [by Islamists Boko Haram] for southerners and Christians to leave the mainly Muslim north.' About 2000 people have used the service.

The article also gives further information on the current unrest.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17369800

*: Maidugari, where much of the violence has taken place, is the capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria.

Please pray for the mental and physical healing, and other needs of these traumatized Christians. Please pray that the resources would be available to allow these rescue efforts to continue, and for the protection of those involved. Please remember all our Nigerian brothers and sisters in your prayers in this time of very great uncertainty and confusion in their nation.

[doug3]

Updated April 9th

A car bomb exploded along a busy roadway in Kaduna, northern central Nigeria on Sunday (April 8th). There are least 16 dead and injured and 35 critically injured, mainly other road users and passers-by. The car, which was being pursued by police, appears to have been heading towards a church (All Nations Christian Assembly Church) where an Easter communion service was in progress. The church's windows and doors were blown out, and some equipment was damaged. Reuters report that the suspicious car collided with another and exploded. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

Sources: AP, Reuters, BBC, Ascology News (Nigeria), WorldStage News Online (Nigeria)

Further Information: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8370EZ20120409

Please pray for the injured and bereaved and all others involved in this latest atrocity in Nigeria. Please pray that those responsible would repent of their deeds and turn to God. Please remember all our Nigerian brothers and sisters in your prayers in this time of very great uncertainty and confusion in their nation.

Thanks,

[doug3]

Updated April 9th

A car bomb exploded along a busy roadway in Kaduna, northern central Nigeria on Sunday (April 8th). There are least 16 dead and injured and 35 critically injured, mainly other road users and passers-by. The car, which was being pursued by police, appears to have been heading towards a church (All Nations Christian Assembly Church) where an Easter communion service was in progress. The church's windows and doors were blown out, and some equipment was damaged. Reuters report that the suspicious car collided with another and exploded. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

Sources: AP, Reuters, BBC, Ascology News (Nigeria), WorldStage News Online (Nigeria)

Further Information: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8370EZ20120409

Please pray for the injured and bereaved and all others involved in this latest atrocity in Nigeria. Please pray that those responsible would repent of their deeds and turn to God. Please remember all our Nigerian brothers and sisters in your prayers in this time of very great uncertainty and confusion in their nation.

Thanks,

Sadly, the latest published report from Reuters is at least 36 dead, and 13 critically injured.

See http://af.reuters.com/article/topNew...83804C20120409

[doug3]

1) Nigerian news sources report

There was a bomb explosion on Sunday evening (7.15-7.30pm) in the predominantly Christian area of Sabon Gari, Kano, northern Nigeria. Some reports say three people were injured.

Further information:

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/04/bomb-explosion-hits-kano-again/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabon_Gari

2) VOA (Voice of America) reports

'Islamist Sect Threatens to Bring Down Nigerian Government

Posted Friday, April 13th, 2012 at 1:00 am

The purported leader of Nigeria’s violent Islamist sect Boko Haram says he will bring down the government of President Goodluck Jonathan within three months.-

[A] 14-minute video posted on social video network YouTube features a man identified as the group’s leader Abubakar Shekau, ridiculing President Jonathan’s promise two weeks ago that the security situation in Nigeria would be under control by the middle of this year.

Shekau described the president’s words as an empty boast and said that Boko Haram intends to “devour” him instead.
“You people, we heard messages from the leader of infidels Jonathan he will finish us within the next three months, no one says this unless he is disrespecting his creator, and we believe and we promise there is nothing he can do to us. All our wishes they should kill us all in Allah’s name, so we can receive all the gifts Allah has promised in the Koran. We pray Allah helps us carry out whatever we have in mind to do, and there is nothing you are going to do because those who were there before you, just talked and did nothing.”

The authenticity of the video has not been confirmed by independent sources.

Northern Nigeria has been under increasing attack by Boko Haram, which is blamed for hundreds of killings in this year alone. The group wants to introduce strict Sharia law across the country. It targets mostly Christians and foreigners, but also moderate Muslims.'

Source: http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-ne...an-government/

Please pray for the healing those injured in Sabon Gari. Please pray that those responsible would repent of their deeds and turn to God. Please pray for the strengthening of our Nigerian brothers and sisters in this time of very great uncertainty and confusion in their nation.

Thanks,

[doug3]

Please see http://bibleforums.org/showthread.ph...5-Dead-in-Kano

Thanks,

[doug3]

Please see http://bibleforums.org/showthread.ph...gedly-killed-8

Thanks

[doug3]

http://bibleforums.org/showthread.ph...ad-and-Injured

[doug3]

Praise God! There have not been any reports of church bombings from Nigeria today (Sun June 24th). According to BosNewsLife, church attendance today was low in Nigeria.

(see http://www.bosnewslife.com/22193-300...es-group-warns)

However there are reports from Nigeria of a jailbreak in Damatura Yobe State, Northern Nigeria, carried out by armed men freeing about 40 inmates. Is is reported that there were no Boko Haram members in the jail.

(see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18571196)

Please continue in prayer for our Nigerian brothers and sisters.

Thanks,

[doug3]

UN News Centre

'22 June 2012 – The United Nations human rights office today condemned the repeated attacks on churches in Nigeria by the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram, and warned that acts against civilians, including on grounds such as religion or ethnicity, could amount to crimes against humanity.

It is estimated that over 100 people have been killed when several churches were attacked by Boko Haram in Kaduna state, in the country’s centre, last Sunday and in its aftermath, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Boko Haram is the same group that claimed responsibility for the bombing last year of the UN offices in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Some 30 people were killed in the initial attacks on Sunday and subsequent retaliation by Christian youths who set up checkpoints. The rest were reportedly killed in clashes between the security forces and Muslims protesting at the deadly retaliatory acts by the Christians, and most recently in clashes between the security forces and alleged insurgents in the Damaturu area.

“We condemn the repeated attacks by Boko Haram on places of worship and on religious freedom, as well as its blatant attempts to stir sectarian tensions and violence between two communities that have lived together peacefully for so long,” OHCHR’s spokesperson in Geneva, Rupert Colville, told reporters.

Mr. Colville added that members of Boko Haram and other groups and entities, if judged to have committed widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population – including on grounds such as religion or ethnicity – are likely to be found guilty of crimes against humanity.

“Deliberate acts leading to population ‘cleansing’ on grounds of religion or ethnicity would also amount to a crime against humanity,” he noted.

OHCHR urged the authorities to take measures to curb inflammatory or hate speech and to work with all stakeholders including civil society and religious leaders to help deal with this deadly threat.

It also encouraged Muslim and Christian leaders to redouble their efforts to contain such extremely dangerous manifestations of religious intolerance and inter-communal violence.'

Source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.as...ria&Cr1=attack

Thank you for your prayers for our Nigerian brothers and sisters.

[doug3]

see: http://bibleforums.org/showthread.ph...78#post2869078

[doug3]

see: http://bibleforums.org/showthread.ph...24#post2869424

[doug3]

The Economist

A well-written analysis of the present situation in Nigeria taken from its print edition has been published online by The Economist at http://www.economist.com/node/215585...r/gettingworse


See also: http://www.opendoorsusa.org/pray/pra...oming-genocide

[doug3]

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/201...stians-Killed/

[doug3]

BBC, Punch (Nigeria)

Thankfully there have been no reports today, so far, of attacks or bombings from Nigeria, where it is just after 6 p.m. (at time of posting).

However, the situation in the central region, where the Muslim-dominated north of the country meets the Christian and animist south, is still very tense. Last Tuesday (July 17th), a Muslim school in Jos, Plateau State, was hit by a rocket resulting in the death of a 10-year-old boy (*). Two days later police diffused a bomb planted outside a catholic school in the capital Abuja about 150 miles west-southwest of Jos (**).

Nigeria-CIA_WFB_Map_WIKIP_svd20120722.png

(Click map image to see enlarged version)

Please continue to pray for our Nigerian brothers and sistes, and for an end of the violence.

Thanks

Sources
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18871816
** http://www.punchng.com/news/police-f...tholic-school/

Background
http://www.persecution.net/nigeria.htm

Map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ni...IA_WFB_Map.png (public domain)