Source: www.persecution.org
Date: June 2, 2023
Nigeria (International Christian Concern) — A church pastor and his wife were among the 43 Christians murdered last month in two separate village attacks.
“The Rev. Daniel Danbeki of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Takalafiya village, Karu County, and his wife were killed along with villagers who were sleeping in their homes the night of May 11 in the attack that lasted until the early hours of May 12,” survivors told Morning Star News.
A church building was also burned down along with numerous homes.
Village resident Isaac Dabu told Morning Star News that the wounded received treatment at the Federal Medical Center in Keffi.
“I write this with pain, as I have been to the Federal Medical Center, Keffi, almost every day to check on my people who were attacked by Fulani herdsmen and terrorists at Takalafia, and to my shock, no government official ever visited them in the hospital to see and assist them,” Dabu said. “These Christian victims have been left at the mercy of God, with their medical bills piling up, with no one to offset the bills.”
“My elder brother was critically injured and is lying between life and death,” Dabu said. “The question is, what is the sin committed by Christians in Takalafiya and Gwanja communities? Is it because we’re Christians that we’re being attacked, and the Muslim-controlled state and federal governments do not care to protect us?”
The Fulani, who are majority Muslim, is the world’s largest nomadic ethnic group. While most Fulani live at peace with their neighbors, militant Fulanis, radicalized by extreme Islam, have emerged from their people group with jihadist intent.
Last year, Nigeria earned the distinction of being the country with the world’s worst persecution in ICC’s Persecutor of the Year report. Radicalized and armed Islamist Fulani have killed tens of thousands of Christians and left more than three million homeless in a 20-year genocide against them.
“Christian communities in the Middle Belt of Nigeria have effectively suffered a twenty-year-long genocide,” said ICC President Jeff King. “Where is the outcry? Where is effective action? In Nigeria, the military, the police, and the intelligence agencies are all controlled by Muslims. This, coupled with a twenty-year lack of response by these agencies, should naturally lead to deeper questioning by the international community. Simply put, the time for cheap talk, and platitudes is over. The world is waking up and asking, “Is the Nigerian government complicit in these attacks.”
HOW TO PRAY: Pray for healing for those injured in these attacks. Pray for comfort for those who lost loved ones. Pray for an end to Fulani-led violence throughout Nigeria.