Attacks in Nigeria have left more than 600 dead, some of them pastors and clergy members. Dozens of others have been kidnapped in the continued aggression by Islamic Fulani militants.
Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust reports an estimated 353 people were killed and 60 kidnapped in June, and 282 people were killed and 97 kidnapped in July. The organization said it does not know how many of those killed and kidnapped were Christians. However an August news report claimed five pastors were abducted by Fulani herdsmen on their way to an annual church conference. A Roman Catholic priest and a parishioner were also killed in an Aug. 1 attack and another clergy member, Chimezie Ani, escaped an Aug. 15 attack on his car while he was returning from a nearby Catholic university.
Ani said Fulani herdsmen have been attacking Christian commuters along that highway “for some time now.”
More than 200 Catholic priests took to the streets in the city of Enugu on Aug. 2 to protest the ongoing violence against Christians.
Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution. (MS)
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