Location of Kaduna state in Nigeria. (Map data © 2024 Google)
ABUJA, Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Muslim terrorists killed two Christians and kidnapped dozens of others in an attack on the outskirts of the city of Kaduna in northern Nigeria, sources said.
The assailants invaded Gonin Gora, a predominantly Christian village in Chikun County, southern Kaduna state, the night of Feb. 28, area residents said.
“The attackers, who we know to be Muslim bandits terrorizing Christians in Kaduna state, attacked the Angwan Auta area of Gonin Gora and killed two Christians,” area resident Patience Ali told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News in a text message. “They also broke into about 10 houses belonging to Christians and kidnapped dozens of members from these households.”
Dozens of other Christians were wounded in the attacks, she said.
Jedidiah John, another resident of the area, also reported the deaths of the two Christians, saying, “about 11 houses were broke into by the terrorists. An unspecified number of Christian residents were also abducted and taken to unknown place.”
Resident Sunday Audu said the “Muslim bandits” attacked at about 11 p.m. and did not leave until the early morning of Feb. 29.
“The Muslim bandits killed two Christians and abducted many other Christians who are now being held captive,” Audu told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News in a text message.
Police confirmed the attack on the Gonin Gora community and said security personnel were deployed to the area to curtail the incessant attacks there.
Samuel Aruwan, commissioner of the state Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs, told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News that his office received distress calls from the Gonin Gora community.
“The Kaduna state government has directed security agencies to as a matter of urgency deploy their personnel to the area to repel the attackers,” Aruwan said.
Nigeria remained the deadliest place in the world to follow Christ, with 4,118 people killed for their faith from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023, according to Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) report. More kidnappings of Christians than in any other country also took place in Nigeria, with 3,300.
Nigeria was also the third highest country in number of attacks on churches and other Christian buildings such as hospitals, schools, and cemeteries, with 750, according to the report.
In the 2024 WWL of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria was ranked No. 6, as it was in the previous year.
Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a 2020 report.
“They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG report states.
Christian leaders in Nigeria have said they believe herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are inspired by their desire to forcefully take over Christians’ lands and impose Islam as desertification has made it difficult for them to sustain their herds.
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