The four men were reportedly shot in a vehicle as they were migrating southwards to rejoin their families, who had already moved to that area to escape the violence. Previous attempts to join them had been hampered by the indefinite general strike against the removal of a government fuel, which has brought the nation to a halt.

On the same day, Boko Haram also threatened to attack Kukargadu and Dagare villages, both of which have large populations of indigenous Christians. However, extra security personnel were deployed to the villages, which were consequently kept safe through the night.

On Tuesday, eight men and a woman were killed by suspected Boko Haram gunmen in Potiskum. All nine are thought to have been Christians. The group, which included a lecturer at the Federal College of Education/Technical in Potiskum, four policemen and a young man employed by Jam’a Clinic, were in a bar in the Dorawa Ward when they were shot at by gunmen who escaped on motorcycles. On the previous day, two Christians were also shot at by gunmen on a motorcycle in the Barracks area of Potiskum, but escaped unhurt by falling to the ground and playing dead.

A 24-hour curfew has now been imposed in Yobe, and motorcycles have been banned due to Boko Haram’s regular usage of these vehicles.

The deteriorating security situation has led to rising speculation that Yobe State could soon be entirely emptied of its Christian population as entire lorry-loads of people have been departing the state. One source, who informed CSW-Nigeria he was assisting over two hundred families of indigenous Christians with relocation, said, “If this continues unabated, in the next few months or weeks there may be no Christians in Yobe State. Though our houses, jobs and churches are here, we have no choice but to leave”.

In several instances, fuel subsidy removal protests are being used for alternative agendas. On Tuesday, a fuel protest in Gusau, Zamfara State, degenerated into an attack on Ebenezer Baptist Church as rioters removed equipment and other valuables from the premises and set them on fire. A 24-hour curfew was imposed in Kaduna City and its environs yesterday, after Muslim youths went to the governor’s official residence on Tuesday claiming they wanted to seize control. Yesterday a 6am to 6pm curfew was imposed in Niger State after rioting broke out in the capital, Minna, and the governor’s campaign headquarters was attacked.

Meanwhile, retaliatory attacks on Hausa-Fulani neighbourhoods in Benin City in southern Nigeria on 9 and 10 January during fuel protests resulted in five deaths, mass displacement and the destruction of an Islamic School attached to the central mosque. This worrying development follows a week of violent events in Adamawa State that left at least 37 people dead in which southerners were specifically targeted.

Members of the Boko Haram group that seeks to impose Sharia (Islamic law) on Nigeria emerged from a mosque near the Deeper Life Bible Church in the Boso area of Gombe, capital of Gombe state, at about 7:30 p.m. and shot Christians attending a weekly meeting known as “The Hour of Revival,” area sources said.

Silas Ugboeze, who was in coma for three days at the Federal Medical Centre in Gombe, died 20 minutes after Compass arrived on Jan. 7, bringing the death toll to nine and the list of those wounded in the attack to 19.

Ugboeze’s son Gideon was also killed, and his 12-year-old daughter, Victoria Silas Ugboeze, was wounded. So far she has survived along with her brother Daniel, who was also shot. Ugboeze’s widow was overcome with grief at the hospital, able to say only, “Lord, where are you? This burden is too much for me to bear.”

Of the nine killed, five died instantly and four died later at the hospital. About 45 people were present at the service when it was attacked, said the church’s 43-year-old pastor, Sunday Okoli.

Dr. Carl Moeller, Open Doors USA President/CEO, says: “The goal of Boko Haram is to spread Sharia Law throughout the country. There are now 12 states in northern Nigeria which have Sharia Law in place. The other goal of Boko Harma is destabilizing the country….spreading fear throughout Nigeria.

“Nigeria is so important to the spread of Christianity throughout Africa. Please pray with me for the Christians in Nigeria and to give wisdom to President Goodluck Jonathan in dealing with the attacks and instability.”

Weekend Killings
Boko Haram had published an ultimatum in a newspaper on Jan. 3 threatening violence if Christians did not leave predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria in three days. Since then, the group has reportedly claimed responsibility for killing at least 44 people in four states, according to Compass.

Christians in Adamawa state came under attack by Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language means “Western education is sacrilege,” over the weekend. On Friday night Jan. 6, 11 people were killed and many others injured at the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in the Nasarawa area of Yola, the state capital.

“There was blood all over the church hall – it was a very sorry sight,” Adamawa journalist Barnabas Manyan told Compass.

Earlier on Friday, 12 persons were reportedly killed when armed men claimed by Boko Haram shot a gathering of Christian traders holding a prayer session before opening their shops in Mubi, Adamawa. The gunmen also shot at another group of Christians meeting at a town hall to arrange for the transportation of relatives slain the previous day, bringing the total of those killed in Mubi to 21.

Also on Jan. 7, Boko Haram members reportedly killed two Christian students of the University of Maiduguri, in Maiduguri, Borno state.

Nigeria is ranked No. 13 on the Open Doors World Watch List of 50 countries which are the worst persecutors of Christians. According to World Watch List, Nigeria had at least 300 martyrs in 2011, although the actual number could be doubled or tripled. That number is the most in any country although North Korea could have had more but information is hard to obtain due to the isolation of the communist state.

NIGERIA (ANS) — The militant Islamist group Boko Haram has issued an ultimatum giving Christians living in northern Nigeria three days to leave the area amid a rising tide of violence there.

CNN reports that Boko Haram spokesman, Abul Qaqa, also said late Sunday that Boko Haram fighters are ready to confront soldiers sent to the area under a state of emergency declared in parts of four states by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday.

“We will confront them squarely to protect our brothers,” Abul Qaqa said during a telephone call with local media. He also called on Muslims living in southern Nigeria to “come back to the north because we have evidence they will be attacked.”

CNN said that recent weeks have seen an escalation in clashes between Boko Haram and security forces in the north-eastern states of Borno and Yobe, as well as attacks on churches and assassinations. Nearly 30 people were killed on Christmas Day at a Catholic church near the federal capital, Abuja — a sign that Boko Haram is prepared to strike beyond its heartland.

Human rights activist Shehu Sani told CNN that the latest Boko Haram threat is credible, but many Christians born and raised in the north have nowhere else to go.

“The killings will continue,” he said, and Boko Haram may respond to the state of emergency by taking its campaign of violence to areas not yet affected.

Sani said the state of emergency and an enhanced presence of the security forces would not improve the situation, alleging that troops had already been involved in human rights abuses and had done little to reduce violence.

CNN explained that Nigeria has almost equal numbers of Christian and Muslims, with the south predominantly Christian. Boko Haram and other Islamic groups claim the north has been starved of resources and marginalized by the government of Jonathan, who is a Christian.

Boko Haram (which according to the group means “Western civilization is forbidden”) is demanding the imposition of Islamic sharia law across Nigeria.

CNN goes on to say that Christian leaders have demanded a stronger response to the attacks from the government and the Muslim community. Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, complained last week that the response of Islamic leaders had been “unacceptable and an abdication of their responsibilities.”

“The Christian community is fast losing confidence in government’s ability to protect our rights,” Oritsejafor said.

David Cook of Rice University, who has studied the rise of Boko Haram, said that “if radical Muslim violence on a systematic level were to take hold in Nigeria … it could eventually drive the country into a civil war.”

CNN said corruption, poverty and a lack of government services have helped Boko Haram gain support, especially among young Muslims out of work. So has a perception that the Muslim north has been marginalized by a political establishment drawn largely from the Christian south.

Cook says the group has been responsible for at least 45 major attacks, which have included assassinations — frequently using gunmen on motorbikes — and, more recently, suicide bombings beyond its northern heartland.

Beyond the security forces and Christian targets, it has assassinated Muslim clerics who oppose the group, and even killed a prominent Boko Haram member who had attended talks to explore a truce. Boko Haram’s presence in the city of Maiduguri has made it almost ungovernable, according to analysts.

Analysts say its ability to inflict mass casualties has grown fast. In August, a suicide bomber struck the U.N. building in Abuja, killing 23 people. In November, some 150 people were killed in a series of bombings and shootings in Damaturu, capital of Yobe state.

CNN also stated the commander of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Carter Ham, has suggested Boko Haram may have developed links with other Islamic jihadist groups in the region, especially al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Sani agrees, and says Boko Haram’s leaders have established sanctuaries across the desert borders in Niger and Chad, out of reach of the Nigerian security forces.

CNN added that the former U.S. ambassador in Nigeria, John Campbell, says that Boko Haram is able to finance itself “through bank robberies and is arming itself by thefts from government armories and purchases — there is no shortage of weapons on the market.”

Less than two months ago, President Jonathan described attacks by Boko Haram as a temporary setback, which would soon be a thing of the past, CNN said.

CNN said Jonathan now appears to see the group as a lethal threat that demands the full attention of the security services. But since Yusuf’s death, Boko Haram has had no obvious leader or structure, and appears to act as loosely connected cells. And it is feeding on deep-seated grievances that the government seems unable to address.

According to CNN, Cook warns that “as more and more territories become ungovernable, such as Maiduguri, then Muslims more and more will want to join Boko Haram, if only because it represents the one group that can actually project power and hold out the illusion of security to the people.”

The majority of fatalities occurred at St Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger State, where bombers in a vehicle hurled explosives at the congregation at the end of mass. ??Sources told Christian Solidarity Worldwide-Nigeria (CSW-N) that the priest had asked parishioners to stay a little longer for Christmas souvenirs. ? Those who did not remain for the ceremony were caught up in the blast.

At least 35 people died in the Madalla bombing, with scores more suffering various degrees of injury, some potentially fatal. CSW-N was informed that in several cases the blast claimed entire families, some of whom were burnt beyond recognition in their cars. In the case of one family, the sole survivor was a thirteen year-old girl called Chidinma, who had not attended church that day.

The next explosions targeted a Mountain of Fire Ministries church in Murtala Mohammad Way in the Plateau state capital, Jos. The bombers were on foot because the state government had temporarily banned the use of unregistered motorcycles for this very reason. The first device destroyed a large building outside the church. However, a police patrol was passing by just as the bombers threw the second, which hit a wall and destroyed a few cars. Four culprits, reportedly Muslims from the Gangare area, were apprehended following a fire fight in which a policeman was injured and later died. There were no other casualties, and two more locally made explosives were allegedly recovered nearby and disarmed.

Multiple explosions were reported next from Damaturu, capital of Yobe State, where fighting between security forces and Boko Haram had claimed over 60 lives earlier in the week. Most significantly, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside the offices of the State Security Service (SSS), killing three SSS men. In a subsequent attack on a church in Gadaka, a town approximately 155 km west of Damaturu, gunmen set ablaze five cars as worshippers fled, but no lives were reported lost.

A bomb exploded at a hotel in Mubi in Adamawa State injuring one person, but other bombs planted around three churches were reportedly disarmed. In the Wasin Umurari area of Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, six people died in an attack launched by suspected Boko Haram gunmen.

Following the attacks, many Christians lamented the fact that their security is no longer guaranteed in northern and central Nigeria. Some are even beginning to avoid church gatherings for fear of being bombed.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said, “The Christmas Day bombings were appalling and cowardly attacks on innocent families who were merely expressing their faith on one of the most significant dates in the Christian calendar. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims, and with Christians throughout the region who understandably feel increasingly vulnerable. Clearly, while security is tight in Abuja, Madalla and other satellite towns to the capital have become alternative soft targets and require urgent additional protection. The continuing insecurity in Yobe and Borno States is also deeply worrying, as are the reported attacks in Adamawa. It is vital that federal and state authorities spare no effort in pursuing, capturing and prosecuting funders and perpetrators of this violence, no matter how highly placed they may be. The bombings are a serious threat to freedom of religion in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic state where co-existence is vital. For the sake of national unity, those behind them must not be allowed to prevail.”

Musa Blak, 60, told Compass how gunmen lurking behind trees outside his home killed his wife, Kunam Musa Blak, and wounded him and his cousin, 48-year-old Monday Blai Yayok, after a schoolteacher in Kukum Gida village allegedly helped Muslims survey the site. Kunam Musa Blak was 50.

In the Jankassa ward of Kukum Gida village, a Christian settlement of 425 people who all attend the local Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Musa Blak and his family were asleep when they were awakened by the sound of barking dogs at 11:45 p.m., he said.

“I decided to go outside and find out what was happening,” Blak said. “While outside, I noticed a dark figure standing behind some cactus trees near my house. I neither moved nor said anything, but kept watching to see what this figure would do.”

Hidden behind the trees were Muslim gunmen who had taken positions around the village with the intent of ambushing villagers, he said.

“A few minutes afterwards, the figure moved away quietly, and at this point my wife too came out of the room and met me outside, asking whether I had found anything,” he said. “I then told her about the figure I saw that moved away.”

As he spoke to her, suddenly he heard a gunshot and saw his wife go down.

“I heard the sound of a gunshot, and suddenly I heard my wife crying as she fell to the ground. I tried reaching to hold her when I too was hit by a bullet,” Blak said. “I still struggled by crawling to the place my wife was lying on the ground and held her in my arms even as I was bleeding.”

Awakened villagers trooped out of their houses, he said, and as his cousin, Yayok, stepped out of Blak’s house, he also was shot.

With other villagers streaming out and soldiers stationed at nearby Kagoro, the assailants must have sensed that it would be difficult to overrun the village and withdrew, he said; by the time military personnel received information about the invasion and rushed over, the gunmen had left.

The soldiers transported him, his cousin and his wife’s body to Kafanchan General Hospital, and then Blak and Yayok were referred to Bingham University Teaching Hospital in Jos; there Musa had his bullet wounds treated, and Yayok underwent surgery on Dec. 12.

“We believe that Muslim Fulani herdsmen who once lived near our village, with the support of Muslims from Kafanchan, were the ones who attacked us,” Blak said.

Jonah Bayina, the 43-year-old head of the village ward, identified the Muslim schoolteacher suspected of helping to lead the gunmen to the site in Kaduna state, which has been wracked by several attacks on Christians the past few months.

“Isa Damu, a Fulani Muslim who teaches in one public school here, is the one who led his fellow Muslims to attack us,” Bayina told Compass. “On Tuesday, Dec. 6, he brought some Muslims to the village, and they stayed with him until they left on Friday, Dec. 9, and then they launched the attack on us the following day. We believe he brought the Muslims to enable them to survey our village before attacking us.”

Damu disappeared on the night of the attack, and he has not been seen since, he said.

“His head teacher phoned him, and they spoke, but Damu refused to disclose where he was, nor gave any reasons for absconding from his teaching post,” Bayina said.

A member of ECWA church in Kukum Gida, Bayina said this was the first attack on the Christian settlement, which lies a the bottom of a cliff face rising 50 meters, less than two kilometers from the Kagoro ECWA Theological Seminary.

“Even though this is the first attack on our community, we are now living in fear and uncertainty as regards our safety,” he said. “The incident has now forced us to keep watch over the village at night, as even a day after the attack, that is, on the night of Sunday, Dec. 11, the attackers returned again to attack us, but through resilience and courage and with the help of soldiers who rushed in from Kagoro, we were able to repel the Muslim attackers.”

Blak said that in spite of the murder of his wife, he has been praying for the assailants.

“I have been praying that these Muslims who attack us come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior, too,” he said. “I have forgiven them, because I know they do not know what they are doing.”

He urged Christians to pray for those persecuting them.

“Jesus Christ also did the same while on the cross,” he said.

On Saturday night three bombs exploded at television viewing centres on the Bauchi Ring Road, claiming the life of one man and injuring 11 people, as crowds were watching a football match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. A fourth device failed to explode and was later defused by the bomb squad. So far no group has claimed responsibility.

Elsewhere, a woman was killed and two others wounded in Kaduna State when gunmen attacked Kukum Dutse village in Kagoro, Kaura Local Government Area (LGA) during the early hours of 11 December. The two surviving victims suffered gunshot wounds, and were transferred to Bingham University Teaching Hospital in Jos.

Commenting on the weekend’s events, the Chief Executive Officer of CSW Nigeria, the Reverend Yunusa Nmadu, said, “I believe that northern elders could contribute more towards ending these frequent attacks on innocent citizens. It is rather worrying that the recently concluded northern Nigeria peace summit produced no statement regarding the Boko Haram militia, which has unleashed violence in several states of northern Nigeria.”

CSW’s Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said, “The security situation in both Plateau and Kaduna States are of great concern. Security services must remain vigilant regarding threats to disrupt Christmas celebrations in Jos, and take proactive steps to secure areas in both Plateau and Kaduna States where attacks are likely to occur. ”

BARKIN LADI, Nigeria (Compass Direct News) – Fulani Muslim herdsmen along with Muslim soldiers have killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state in the past week, Christians in this northern-central Nigerian town said.

Smaller attacks beginning on Nov. 20, reportedly over allegations by Fulani Muslims of cattle theft, preceded an attack on a Barkin Ladi church on Nov. 23 that killed four Christians, and an assault the next day left 35 Christians dead in Barkin Ladi and nearby Kwok village, according to area Christian leaders.

Church attendance was decimated yesterday as thousands of Christians have left the area.

“Christians are fleeing the town because we have no guns to fight back,” said one woman in a group of six Christians trying to leave Barkin Ladi. “Muslims have guns, and they have their soldiers fighting for them, so we have no choice but to leave town.”

Almost all churches in the town cancelled or held reduced worship services on the first Sunday (Nov. 27) after the crisis was contained, as nearly all area Christians have fled to Jos or have left Plateau state, long hit by ethnic property conflicts fueled by anti-Christian sentiment. In March 2010 ethnic Berom Christians, who live as farmers, suffered attacks from Fulani nomads who graze their cattle on the Beroms’ land, resulting in hundreds of deaths in three villages near Jos.

In the attack on Thursday (Nov. 24), the Fulani Muslims were shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” said farmer Choji Pamjamo, 51.

“On Thursday at about 9 a.m., the Muslims’ call to prayer was made at the Izala [Islamic sect] mosque,” Pamjamo said. “And shortly after that, we saw hundreds of armed Muslims invading the town from all directions, attacking and killing Christians. They were shouting ‘Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar,’ as they were burning properties belonging to Christians.”

Pamjamo confirmed Christian leaders’ account of an attack on a Church of Christ of Nigeria (COCIN) congregation in the Sabon Layi (Rantya) area of Barkin Ladi the previous night (Nov. 23), saying that among the four Christians killed was Bible teacher Yakubu Pam.

David Gyang, 51, an elder at the COCIN Barkin Ladi church, said Muslims set off a religious crisis by attacking Christians at the church site on Wednesday night (Nov. 23) and then launching a major offensive the next morning.

“Some of the Christian victims in this attack that I know include a Christian police officer, one Mr. Bulus, who is the station officer of the Barkin Ladi police station,” Gyang said. “He was inside his house on that day, and these Muslims broke the walls of his room and went inside to kill him and his son. A second Christian victim is Solomon Pam. He was attacked and had his hand broken.”

Gyang lamented that Muslim soldiers brought to town to restore order joined their fellow Muslims in killing and maiming Christians.

“Muslims soldiers took sides with their fellow Muslims and were shooting and killing Christians,” he said. “They also had soldiers guarding mosques in the town, but none was sent to watch over our churches, and that is the reason Muslims were able to burn the Baptist church in the town.”

The COCIN church in Barkin Ladi had an average Sunday service attendance of about 1,200 people, but yesterday only 50 showed up, he said.

“We could not go on with the worship but held a prayer meeting, and then our pastor left to Kwok village for the burial of the 26 killed there,” he said.

Sources told Compass that along with the 26 Christians killed in Kwok village, nine others were killed in the attack on Barkin Ladi on Thursday (Nov. 24). Compass found that the area attacks on Christians began Nov. 20, the day of the alleged cattle theft, with the killing of three Christians outside Barkin Ladi, and then two Christians in the town were killed on Nov. 21.

The next day, a Christian was beheaded behind a popular hotel in Barkin Ladi known as the White House, sources said. The attack on the COCIN church ensued the following evening.

Bitrus Davou and John David, two young Christian men who live near the church building, said they narrowly escaped death.

“Bullets fired at me by a Muslim soldier missed me and killed my dog,” said Davou, 21.

David, also 21, said he and five friends were sitting in front of their house when a Muslim soldier appeared and began shooting at them.

“My friends ran inside the house, but I could not follow suit immediately as there was no route for me to run – so I jumped into an unfinished building beside my house,” David said, pointing toward the bullet holes in the wall where he had taken refuge. “While there, the soldier spotted me and began shooting at me. It is a miracle that I escaped unhurt.”

The Rev. Daniel Moses, pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), said the violence was started by town Muslims who obtained massive support from Muslims from other parts of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. Thousands of Christians have been displaced, he said.

“As of this morning [Sunday, Nov. 27) corpses of Christians killed are still being recovered, but we can confirm that 37 corpses have been recovered already, and even as I talk to you the burial of some of them is going on in the surrounding Christian villages,” Moses said.

Emmanuel Kyesmen, secretary of ECWA congregation, said the government has been slow to address security concerns.

“Alhaji Kasimu, one of leaders of the Muslim community in Barkin Ladi, is responsible for arming Muslims to attack Christians – we all know this, and the attention of security agencies have been called to his activities, but no one seems to take the necessary steps to check him,” Kyesmen said. “It appears the man is above the law.”

The Barkin Ladi ECWA church, whose regular worship service usually attracts about 270 people, was a ghost of itself on Sunday, with only 42 members able to muster the courage to show up. The service lasted no more than 15 minutes, as they only prayed and left.

Kyesmen told Compass that 11 members of the church had their houses set ablaze by Muslims.

“As a church, we have become targets of attacks,” Kyesmen said. “Our pastors and members are being killed in Plateau state by Muslims, while thousands of others have become refugees in their fatherland. There is the urgent need for the Nigerian government to find a lasting solution to this problem.”

Religious conflict has been growing in Plateau state since 2006, he said, with numerous investigating committees instituted to investigate and report on the immediate and deeper causes, he said.

“But the surprising thing is that none of these reports has been implemented, and no individual has been made to face the wrath of the law,” Kyesmen said. “The government must have the courage to ensure that those causing these problems are prosecuted.”

Among the church buildings found locked on Sunday morning were St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish, St. Mark’s Anglican Church, ECWA Good News Church, COCIN Church Sabon Layi, Living Faith Church, and a host of other Pentecostal and charismatic churches. The few churches that opened for prayer, which lasted no longer than 15 minutes, included the ECWA church, the COCIN church, and the All Denomination Church at the police barracks.

David Alamba, 48, a technician whom Compass met near the town’s police station along with five Christian women who were trying to leave Barkin Ladi, said many churches in town have been closed as most Christians have fled.

“Most Christians who live in Muslim quarters like Sabon Layi, Angwan Hausawa, Angwan Kwano, Angwan Izala, and Angwan Katako areas have to get soldiers to accompany them before they get their few belongings to leave the town,” he said. “You have to pay the soldiers at least 2,000 naira (US$12) before they escort you to your house to get a few belongings before you move out of the town.”

Alamba said Muslims have been moving into the farms belonging to Christians and are destroying crops.

“This is to chase us out of the town and make us homeless, and at the same time starve us to death, since we now have no food to eat,” he said.

Predominantly Christian areas affected by the attacks included Rantya Gwol, Anguwar Tasha, Gangare, and Hayin Asibiti, sources said.

Several people fleeing the town as Compass arrived asked, “When will the killings of Christians in Nigeria stop?”

ZONKWA, Nigeria (Compass Direct News) – It was a few minutes before 10 at night when the staccato sound of gunfire interrupted the serene worship of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church near Zonkwa, Kaduna state. When the chaos ended, two women lay dead and 12 people were wounded.

The attack by a Muslim extremist gang in Tabak 1 village on Thursday (Nov. 3) shattered the peace long known to Christians there, area sources said. The following night at about the same time, the gang raided another Christian community near Zonkwa, Kurmin-Bi, killing one Christian and injuring another.

While the Islamic extremist Boko Haram was responsible for several attacks that killed at least 150 people in Borno and Yobe states in Nigeria’s northeast over the weekend, Christians in Tabak 1 village in northern Nigeria’s centrally located Kaduna state said the church attack appeared to come from a Muslim gang not affiliated with the terrorist group.

The two women killed were Justina Zugwai Isaac, 28, and Hassana Luka, 39. A Roman Catholic seminary student who was leading worship at the time, 32-year-old Emmanuel Mallam, said it was a miracle that only the two women died in the attack.

Unaware that the attackers were hidden in the bushes around the church building, the two women were outside the building when they were shot, Mallam said. He had asked parishioner Julius Jacob, 38, to make closing remarks when the shooting began.

“As these Muslims began shooting, they shot Mrs. Justina Isaac, a mother of three, who had all the while been hanging around by the window outside the church listening to my teachings in the church,” he said. “And when she was felled by the bullets, the cry of her baby attracted another woman, Mrs. Hassana Luka, who came out of her house close to the church to find out what the problem was, only to be killed too.”

Before the attack, Mallam had asked all women and children in the church to return to their homes for safety reasons, but Zugwai Isaac had remained near the window listening to the teaching, he said.

“I asked the women and children to leave because it was getting late, and we had already had two hours of teaching on this very important topic,” he said. “So, the women and children left the church, and I and about 50 men stayed behind to round up our discussion on the topic.”

Mallam said he was leading a talk about the significance of the Eucharist in the church when the Muslim assailants, “who must have laid ambush around the church for a while,” opened fire into the church building

“I was dazed and confused, as I have never experienced anything like this before,” he said. “All over I could see bullets flying around us with fire. I ducked and ran blindly, not knowing where I was running to, until I found a window and jumped out of the church. That was how I escaped being killed.”

Mallam said he fled as the firing continued, running to nearby Aduwan village to alert the community about the attack in his community.

“While there, I phoned a fellow seminarian, Kelvin Dominic, whose older brother is military personnel and was in the village at the time,” he said. “Dominic in turn informed his soldier brother about the attack, and he too reported the incident to his military colleagues manning the numerous road-blocks in the area.”

Mallam said the soldiers evacuated both the injured and the dead to the St. Louis Catholic Hospital in Zonkwa.

The injured were identified as 8-year-old Shadrack Luka; Jacob Kazah; Jacob Achi; Patrick Markus; Anthony Luka; Timothy Jacob; Sunday Julius; Ishaya Jacob; Christopher Anthony; Joseph Jacob; Happy Ishaya (another woman also shot outside the church building); and Ayuba Dabo.

Mallam said the church has suspended both early morning and evening mass as his parishioners fear another attack.

“It appears that there is no government in Nigeria,” he said. “If not, how can Christians be slaughtered in northern Nigeria and the government is unable to stop this carnage?”

Ishaku Luka, village head of Tabak 1, told Compass that his people were peace-loving and have never had any conflicts with area Muslims.

“I wonder why we should now become the target of their attacks,” he said. “We are sad about this attack, as it has affected us negatively. I want to appeal to the Nigerian government to take immediate measures to halt these attacks by Muslims on Christians.”

Luka said one of the women killed, Hassana Luka, had recognized one of her attackers as a Muslim who had once lived in the area.

“She called his name as Ado Ali before she was killed, and Anthony, who was hidden nearby, heard her calling the name,” Luka told Compass.

In Kurmin-Bi, another predominantly Christian village near Zonkwa, eyewitness Bitrus Musa told Compass that the attack took place at about 10 p.m. on Friday (Nov. 4).

“Three Christian friends, Hassan Peter, Sunday Bayil, and Anthony Yariyet, had met at Yariyet’s house and were chatting when, suddenly, Muslim gunmen emerged from bushes around the house to attack them,” Musa said. “Hassan Peter was shot on the head, and he died instantly, while my brother, Sunday Bayil, was shot on his legs.”

Again soldiers were alerted, and they arrived to remove Peter’s body and the injured Bayil to the St. Louis Catholic Hospital.

Musa said there was no doubt that the assailants were Muslim extremists; he said the gang members phoned area residents on Saturday (Nov. 5) warning Christians of another attack.

“They told us through a phone call that they will be returning again to attack us,” Musa said.

The Kaduna state assaults were similar to the guerrilla method Muslim extremists have used to attack Christian communities in Bauchi and Plateau states in Nigeria. They strike, kill members of a family or a group of Christians, and then withdraw, only to strike again in another community as military personnel are struggling to defend the previously attacked community.

Nigeria’s population of more than 158.2 million is divided between Christians, who make up 51.3 percent of the population and live mainly in the south, and Muslims, who account for 45 percent of the population and live mainly in the north. The percentages may be less, however, as those practicing indigenous religions may be as high as 10 percent of the total population, according to Operation World.

The attack on St Augustine Catholic Church occurred at around 11:45 in the evening. According to witnesses, gunmen raided the church as a prayer meeting was coming to an end, fired at a congregation consisting mainly of women and children, and escaped into the bush. Two women died at the scene. Twelve other people were wounded mainly in the arms and legs, and are receiving treatment at St. Louis Hospital in nearby Zonkwa.

The attack on Tabak Village comes in the wake of a 3 am raid in late October on a police station and bank in Saminaka Town in Lere LGA, Kaduna by suspected members of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, who reportedly escaped in the direction of Bauchi State carrying cash and weaponry.

In a statement issued on behalf of the Kaduna State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the organisation’s secretary, the Reverend Yunusa Nmadu, unequivocally condemned the armed attack “on innocent Christian worshipers in the church”, and expressed anxiety that the raid had occurred “in spite of the heavy presence of soldiers in the area”. The statement concluded with a call to the Government of Kaduna State “to ensure that the perpetrators of this evil act are fished out and brought to book. Meanwhile we call on all Christians to be calm and prayerful in the face of this new dimension of attack on the Church”.

In September, soldiers and riot police were drafted to Bitaro Village in Jaba LGA, also in southern Kaduna following an armed attack by Fulani tribesmen in which four people were killed and over ten injured.

CSW’s Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said, “We extend our deepest sympathies to those bereaved and wounded in this terrible incident. This attack on an innocent congregation of mostly women and children is deplorable, and the fact it could occur despite a heavy military presence in the area is a cause for great concern. CSW urges the Government of Kaduna to ensure that the security services take swift and decisive action to apprehend the perpetrators of this appalling act in order to deter any recurrence. It is vital that these raids are brought to a halt quickly in order to restore confidence and security to the local population.”