A Nigerian Bible College has been forced to close because of the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.
The leaders of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria announced the closure of Kulp Bible College and also many churches because of the terrorist attacks in the last few weeks that have left more than 300 Christians dead.
“Boko Haram violence has been getting worse every day, and our members are fleeing the area by the thousands,” EYN President Samuel Dali said. “Recent attacks in Borno and Adamawa states where are our churches are located have seen Boko Haram take over the Army base. As a result, about 350 Christians have been killed.”
The headquarters of the church is also under threat from the terrorist group.
“Every night at the EYN headquarters, our staff and their families go to bed with hearts bound in fear for their lives,” Dali said. “This has forced them to be prepared to flee at any time of the night in an event an attack occurs during the hours of darkness.”
The Bible College is in Kwarhi which is one of the towns claimed in the “caliphate” that Boko Haram says they have set up in northern Nigeria.
A witness who escaped a Boko Haram attack on a Christian village said they are progressing through the area using the same tactic.
“They went from house to house shooting and killing those they came in contact with,” Luka Sabo said. “I have seen bodies of some of those killed, but it is difficult to say how many have died.”
The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram is refusing to allow Christians to bury the bodies of other slaughtered Christians, leaving them strewn all over roads and buildings.
Residents of the city of Bama say that the stench of the rotting bodies is overwhelming.
“So many bodies litter the streets, and people are not allowed to even go and bury the dead ones. So the situation is getting worse and worse,” Borno senator and lawmaker Ahmed Zanna told the BBC..
The Nigerian government had initially denied the terrorists had overtaken Bama but later admitted the 26,000 people had fled the town because of the terrorists. The Nigerian Security Network says that Boko Haram is making what they call “lightning territorial gains” over the last two months.
Andrew Noakes of the NSN says that the danger is growing from Boko Haram because they are “beginning to operate like a conventional army.”
The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has released a new video declaring their capture of a Christian town expands their “Islamic caliphate.”
A “caliphate” is a brutal dictatorship lead by a “supreme religious and political leader” who is considered a successor to Muhammad. Strict sharia law is forced upon the people.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a 52-minute video where he declares his terrorists have established themselves in the Christian town of Gwoza and they will not be leaving.
“Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in [the town of] Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,” Shekau declares. “By the grace of Allah, we will not leave the town. We have come to stay.”
“Allah commands us to rule the rest of the world,” Shekau says.
Nigerian officials say that the country is still intact and that the terrorists are not in control of their own “state.” However, one lawmaker admitted they are in control of the land.
“The killings are massive, but nobody can give a toll for now because nobody has been able to go to that place because the insurgents are still there,” lawmaker Peter Biye stated. “They have taken over the whole area.”
Shekau then threatened France, Israel and the United States before the video ended.
“Democracy is worse than homosexuality, worse than sleeping with your mother,” Shekau contended. “You are all pagans and we will kill you. Even if you do not attack us we will kill you … Allah commands us to kill without pity.”
In the latest round of violence against Christians in Nigeria, the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has killed at least 100 people in a predominantly Christian town.
The terrorists struck in Gwoza around 4 a.m. local time, invading homes and slashing anyone they found with machetes and knives. The terrorists also targeted the homes of Christians with firebombs.
Witnesses say the government’s forces fled quickly when the terrorist attack began and left the town in the control of the extremists.
“I thank God for sparing my life, but three of my neighbors and members of our church were killed during the attack,” Christian resident of the city Pirda Tada told reporters. “These Christians in our village had their throats slit with knives while their hands were tied behind their backs. Some houses were bombed as the Boko Haram gunmen were chanting, ‘God is great!’ in Arabic.”
The estimated number of Christians who have been forced to flee northern Nigeria because of the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has passed 300,000.
The terrorists have also sent letters to various Christian majority communities threatening to attack and kill all Christians.
“You have been fleeing your homes, but we are still pursuing you, because the soldiers with you people cannot protect you,” the letter reads. “Your lives, farmlands and other property are also not safeguarded. Allah willing, we shall not fail to attack your communities and the listed churches in this letter.”
The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has killed as many Christians in Nigeria since the start of the 2014 than they did during the entire year of 2013.
The Jubilee Campaign reports that the total number of Christians killed are in proportion to a rising number of overall deaths caused by the Islamic extremist group. The death toll of close to 4,100 is already higher than all the total deaths of last year.
The increase in the death toll is reportedly due to an increase in weapon capability and training because of connections to other al-Qaeda related terror cells in Africa including al-Shabaab in Somalia and the terror groups in Mali fighting French troops for control of the northern regions.
“The pattern therefore is that if you do not do what they demand, even if you are Muslim, you become an ‘apostate’ deserving of death,” Emmanuel Ogebe of Jubilee Campaign said. “Therefore the difference between Boko Haram’s approach to Christian ‘infidels’ and Muslim apostates is you are killed as a Christian ‘just because’ your name is Christian – you go to church, etc. – whereas Muslims are generally killed ‘for cause,’ for example working for the government or refusing to pay extortion taxes to Boko Haram.”
Human Rights Watch reported over 2,000 deaths during the same time period but acknowledged they only covered a part of the country and that their information is likely a very conservative estimate.
The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has made another deadly attack on a Christian church in Nigeria.
The terrorists bombed Saint Charles Catholic Church in Kano, Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 5 people and wounding 8 others. The bombing happened shortly after the ending of Sunday mass as the crowd was beginning to leave the building. Police estimate the weapon was an IED thrown from across the road.
The attack was one of two attempted in Kano on Sunday. A woman wearing a homicide bomb vest was surrounded and isolated by police, detonating her device where she could not cause damage. Five officers were slightly wounded when she detonated the device.
In a surprising show of support to the Christian community of Kano, Muslim officials cancelled the city’s celebrating of the Eid festival marking the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan.
Government officials say that Boko Haram has started receiving weapons and training from other al-Qaeda related groups like Al-Shabab in Somalia.
A new report from Human Rights Watch says that Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has killed over 2,000 people so far in 2014.
HRW has outlined the attacks by the Islamic extremist group since January and noted their report is based on analysis of media reports as well as field reports from their own investigators sent into Nigeria.
“Boko Haram is effectively waging war on the people of northeastern Nigeria at a staggering human cost,” Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, told the Christian Post. “Atrocities committed as part of a widespread attack on civilians are crimes against humanity, for which those responsible need to be held to account.”
The report said the greatest number of murders, 1,446 people, happened in Borno State, where the terrorist group was founded.
The terrorists are still holding over 200 girls that were kidnapped from a school in Chibok in April demanding the release of terrorists and other demands.
More than 60 girls who had been taken by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram escaped over the weekend and are now under the protection of the Nigerian government.
A local official in the Chibok area of Borno state told the Associated Press Monday that the girls were being held by a group of terrorists who attacked a military outpost. The girls escaped when the terrorists left to launch the attack on the base.
Officials say most of the girls are in good health but about a quarter had to be hospitalized because of infections and wounds. Several of the girls reported being beaten by their captors.
The girls reported they were not part of a larger group, meaning the terrorists have broken the girls up into smaller groups. Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened to sell the girls into slavery if the government does not pay for their release.
The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram bombed a market in northern Nigeria Tuesday morning leaving dozens dead and at least 50 injured.
Witnesses say that the bomb was located under a load of charcoal that was in a pickup parked near the market in Maiduguri. The bomb was powerful enough to reduce sales stalls to rubble and even completely destroy nearby vehicles.
A trader said the bomb went off just before 8 a.m. local time, before most of the traders and customers arrived for daily business.
Officials cordoned off the area, refusing to allow access because of previous patterns of Boko Haram bombings where secondary devices were timed to hit rescue and emergency personnel.
The attack is the second major assault on a shopping area by Boko Haram in the last two weeks. Last week a bombing at a major shopping area in the nation’s capital of Abuja killed 24 and wounded dozens.
Nigerian military sources reported the arrest Monday night of a prominent businessman who they say had been working with Boko Haram by funding many of their terror attacks. They stated the businessman, Babuji Ya’ari, had been working with a vigilante group as a cover to provide information to the terrorists.
