All posts tagged: Nigeria

OpenDoors reports a 60% increase in the number of believers who died for their faith in 2020

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According to OpenDoors annual report, there was a 60% increase in the number of Christians who died for their faith in 2020 over 2019. This was a largely led by a dramatic rise in the number of Christians murdered in Nigeria by Islamic extremists. OpenDoors reported that 4,761 Christians died for their faith last year with 2,200 of them taking place in Nigeria. Several have been warning of a potential for a Christian genocide in the African nation. It also appears that the violence directed at Christians in Nigeria is spreading into neighbouring countries. This has been part of an overall increase in the persecution of Christians around the world noted by OpenDoors, an organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians around the world. In their report, OpenDoors added that governments have also been using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to come down on Christians. They are not only trying to stop churches from meeting, while allowing similar secular events to continue, but in some areas of the world, they are purposefully cutting back aid …

Fulani herdsmen Credit: John Mauremootoo/Flickr/Creative Commons

218 Christians massacred in Nigeria by Fulani herdsmen

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Over the June 21-22, 2018 weekend, Fulani herdsmen massacred 218 Christians in Nigeria’s northern Plateau state in coordinated attacks on 11 villages. This is the third worst massacre of Christians by Fulani tribesmen behind the slaughter of 500 Christians in March 2010 in Plateau State and 300 in February 2016 in Benue State. This recent spate of violence is both puzzling and concerning. The Fulani herdsmen are nomadic or semi-nomadic tribesmen that travel through several countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Senegal with their cattle herds. They provide the bulk of the meat in Nigeria. Though the Fulani tribesman are Muslim they have worked peaceably side by side Christians farmers for decades. But that changed in recent years, and some are convinced that Muslim extremism, Boko Haram in particular, has radicalized many in this tribal group. Despite Nigeria being made up of 51% Christians and 45% Muslim, the Muslims are concentrated in the Northern and a middle part of Nigeria where they make up the majority of the population. However, the Plateau State where many of …