MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Death threats and other dangers in Maiduguri drove most of the members of a church of converts from Islam to other parts of northern Nigeria, but a fellowship remains.
Of the 25 converts who formed a church in the city in the northeastern state of Borno two years ago, only three remain.
Still, while worshipping separately in the towns where they now reside, the converts brave the threats of Islamic extremists once a month and return to Maiduguri to secretly pray and praise together.
“The venue and time is agreed among themselves, and the venue is also changed every meeting so that they are not attacked,” said Titus Dama Pona, founder of Good Way Mission, an outreach ministry to Kanuri Muslims, who planted Kanuri Christian Fellowship church in September 2005.
The only known underground fellowship in Nigeria, the group is said to be the first church among the Kanuri and Shuwa Arab ethnic groups in the Islamic enclave of Borno.
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