In its 2021 report, the U.S. Commission on International and Religious Freedom warned Nigeria “will move relentlessly toward a Chrisitan genocide” if action is not taken.
Christian Post Reporter
Armed Fulani radicals raided a Baptist church’s Sunday service in Nigeria, killing one person, injuring another and abducting four women as violence accelerates in the Kaduna state.
Charity Musa, Rose Zacharia, Alheri Bala and Liatu Zakka, a widow whose husband was murdered in an earlier attack, were the four women kidnapped from the church service at Haske Baptist Church in Manini village of the Chikun Local Government Area, according to the United Kingdom-based human rights organization Chrisitan Solidarity Worldwide.
Sources claim heavily armed men killed health worker Zacharia Dogon Yaro and injured Shehu Haruna.
Government officials confirmed the attacks.
“Preliminary investigation conducted so far revealed that, four persons are missing which arouse a suspicion that they might have been kidnapped by the hoodlums," police command spokesperson Mohammed Jalige told Nigerian media.
“Two others sustained gunshot wounds, namely; Dr. Zakariya Doga Yaro, a staff of Kaduna State Ministry of Health attached to the Primary Healthcare Center in Rimi village, Udawa, Chikun LGA and Shehu Haruna."
Khataza Gondwe, CSW’s head of advocacy in the organization’s office in Nigeria, told The Christian Post in a Tuesday interview that the danger of attacks and kidnappings has become widespread in Nigeria.
“Kidnappers have expanded their operations to the extent that everybody, every civilian right now feels like prisoners because they’re afraid when driving outside of towns and cities,” Gondwe said. “Once on an open road, they are subject to being abducted. … Armed men can emerge [from] the bush and take people away, leave cars behind. At the moment, that kind of kidnapping is coming closer and closer to the cities.”
The militant groups threaten everyone, Gondwe said, but Christians face “particularly bad treatment” depending on who the abductors are.
“If Christians fall into the hands of armed groups that have an extremist religious ideology, then the danger is definitely heightened,” Gondwe explained.
A source told CSW the kidnappers are expanding their activities, especially in rural areas.
“We are like prisoners. We can hardly step out of the city. Once you’re on the road, your heart is in your mouth until you reach your destination,” the source told CSW.
The abductors often kidnap to demand ransom money, which has become a lucrative industry in Nigeria.
After years of not being addressed effectively by authorities, the danger is now widespread. Gondwe said the attacks began around 2011 and became worse in 2015 when the current administration took control.
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