1. Kidnapping of Christians increasing in Kaduna State
The Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Kasuwan Magani district church council in Kaduna, has claimed that between January 2022 and November 2022, 807 members of its church have been abducted. Timothy Maigida, chairman of the ECWA Kasuwan Magani district, said ECWA churches in Kajuru Local Government Area have been under constant attack by unknown bandits and gunmen. “In 2016 when the terrorism and kidnapping for ransom started, 38 people were abducted in all. Eight of the victims were killed, and the remaining were released after the payment of ransom. In 2017, the number of people killed was 35. In 2018, a crisis erupted in Kasuwan Magani market on October 10, 2018. That single incident claimed the lives of 286 identified locals that went to the market that day. That was apart from those from outside the local government that were not identified. The following day, 19/10/2018, the late Agom Adara, HRH (Dr.) Maiwada Raphael Galadima, was ambushed, abducted, and later murdered. In 2019, we lost 196 members to armed bandits in an attack on churched in six communities. We have suffered and still suffering both the kidnapping and killing of our people. From January to November, 807 people were abducted by bandits. It is in view of these devastations that we as a church and people have endured, that we have decided to hold a sober reflection service on 10 th December 2022, in Kasuwan Magani and bring in people within and outside Kaduna that would help is to rebuild our homes, churches and communities,” concluded Maigada. https://www.thecable.ng/807-of-ourmembers-abducted-in-11-months-says-kaduna-ecwa-pastor
2. 16 Killed, houses destroyed in attacks in Enugu State
In an attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen, sixteen people, including women and children, were killed. The attack happened in Eboh, Eha-Amufu, and Enugu State. On Friday, bodies were recovered, with further searches still ongoing. Some people suffered gunshot wounds, and about 7 houses were destroyed. This latest attack comes a day after a similar one in Isiado village, during which locals were able to repel the armed men. According to local sources, the attackers were dressed in military uniforms, and because of that, villagers were relaxed when they initially saw them. A resident of Eboh Ishialu, Ndukwe Linya, said it was difficult to accurately ascertain the numbers of people killed as many had simply fled. “We have recovered 16 bodies of our brothers and sisters killed. Among the victims are five women and seven children. The number could rise as the search continues. The assailants wore military uniforms and that was why they got many people. People felt that they were soldiers who came to protect them and relaxed before they suddenly opened fire on the people. We believe they were not only herdsmen, some of the assailants are from Benue state,” says Olinya. Ngele Odoh, a community spokesperson, disputes this account. “They even took away six bodies. some relations didn’t release the bodies of their brothers and sisters to the police because of the extortions that usually follow after they take the bodies away before they would be able to bury them.” community leader, Chief Maxwell Olinya, said, “Thursday December 8, 2022, is the darkest day in the history of Eboh community. I lack the words to describe what is happening in my community. The security agencies are not helping us. The soldiers are only at checkpoints on the major roads harassing motorists. The attacks don’t come through the roads, they’re in the bushes. Why can’t the government deploy drones and attack helicopters to check the bushes? you see military helicopters when they (soldiers) are chasing members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed wing, Eastern Security Network (ESN).” in response to other accusations leveled against Fulani herdsmen, Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Ammani, has called ‘baseless’ and ‘misleading’ reports that they were found with arms and ammunition in a stolen truck. in a statement, he “dispelled in its entirety, the news making the rounds that rather than goods and some travelers, as the preliminary investigation has revealed, the truck was instead loaded with firearms, ammunition, and bandits…..baseless, misleading, and an act of disinformation capable of creating unnecessary panic and escalating the situation in the area”. https://alicestarr399.wixsite.com/alicestarrblog/post/more-carnage-in-eha-amufu-as-suspected-herders-kill-16-in-afresh-attack
3. Nigerian Army accused of performing forced abortions
On 7 December 2022, ACI Africa reported as follows:
According to a report published by Reuters today, a massive forced abortion program has been carried out by the
Nigerian military on at least 10,000 women since 2013. In addition to exposing the Nigerian government’s forced
abortion campaign, Reuters’ findings further evidence the use of rape as a weapon of war carried out by Islamist
insurgents on Nigerian civilians. As detailed in Reuters’ extensive article, 7 Division, the Nigerian military force in
charge of countering the insurgents, has been forcing chemical and surgical abortions on tens of thousands of
women who have been raped by Islamist insurgents such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State-West Africa Province
(ISWAP), a self-proclaimed regional “caliphate” of ISIS.
Soldiers involved in the military’s forced abortion program stated to Reuters that the reason for the program was
that the unborn children are believed to be “predestined” to be insurgents like their fathers, necessitating that the
government “destroy (these) insurgent fighters before they could be born.” Reuters verified that the Nigerian
military has beaten and coerced women, some as young as 12, into abortions in the most unsanitary
conditions. Bintu Ibrahim, a woman who underwent one such forced abortion, told Reuters: “If they had left me with
the baby, I would have wanted it.”
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), an organization that monitors religious persecution globally, released a report in
November noting a “sharp increase in genocidal violence from militant non-state actors, including jihadists,” in
Africa. According to ACN, the situation is particularly dire in Nigeria, which “teeters on the brink of becoming a failed
state” due to rising jihadism. ACN’s November report stated that in Nigeria the “number of attacks and killings has sharply risen, with more than
7,600 Christians killed” between 2020 and 2022. Though previous reports detailed Islamic extremists’ use of rape as
a terror tactic, Reuters’ article sheds light on the massive scale of the jihadists’ rape campaign. Now, with Reuters’
findings, there is concrete evidence that Nigeria’s radical Islamic insurgents have been perpetuating a systematic
campaign of torture and rape on women, with at the very least more than 10,000 victims since 2013.
One woman, identified by Reuters as Fati, was kidnapped, regularly beaten and raped, and forcibly married off to
three successive Islamist extremists. According to victims’ and Nigerian soldiers’ testimonies obtained by Reuters,
Fati’s horrific experience is the norm for women captured by Boko Haram and ISWAP.
Reuters details how after enduring repeated torture and rape at the hands of the jihadist militants for years, Fati was
rescued by the Nigerian military only to undergo a forced chemical abortion in which she experienced “searing pain,”
surrounded by other women who were similarly suffering through abortions.
For the second consecutive year, Nigeria has been left off of the U.S. State Department’s list of countries that engage
in or tolerate the world’s worst religious freedom violations, despite regular reports of kidnappings and killings of
Christians. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced this year’s designations on Dec. 2, and although several
Islamic terrorist groups active in Nigeria were listed, Nigeria itself was not.
https://www.aciafrica.org/news/7227/reuters-exposes-massive-rape-and-forced-abortion-campaigns-in-nigeria
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