Tag Archives: Kidnapping

Nigerian Soldiers Free 71 Women From Boko Haram

A major action by the Nigerian military against the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram as resulted in the freedom of 71 girls and women who had been held captive by the terror group.

Some of the women had been in the control of the terrorists for a year.

Close to 30 people were saved in a raid on Tuesday, with the remainder freed during an assault on two jihadist camps in Borno on Wednesday.  The camps were about 22 miles southeast of the Borno state capital of Maiduguri.

Army spokesman Tukur Gusau said a number of terrorists were killed during the military raid.

The army has been focusing on raids that will free hostages in light of many of the hostages being forced into suicide terror attacks.  Suicide bomber attacks spurred by Boko Haram have killed 47 people in the last week.

The group has also increased their campaigns of terror, killing 830 in just two months.

However, Nigeria’s military spokesman said a new multi-national group fighting the terrorists is about to go into service.

“Any moment from now, the operations or the Task Force will be manifest. In other words, we may not tell you (when it will commence), you will just see it,” Nigeria’s military spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade told AFP, who declined to give further details for strategic reasons.

Muslim Landlord Reportedly Abducts, Forces Christian Woman into Islamic Marriage

The family of a Pakistani woman is demanding the return of a Christian mother of three from a Muslim man who abducted and raped her then forced her into an Islamic marriage.

The British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) says that Fouzia Sadiq, believed to be in her mid-20s, was taken by Muhammed Nazir, 55.  Nazir is a landowner who “employed” the family of the kidnapped woman.

“Muslim landlord Muhammed Nazir … employed the whole family, including the children in a form of modern day slavery, paying very little money and providing squalid shelter,” the organization said in a release. “The husband signed a contract with a thumbprint, unable to read it due to only 7 percent of Christians attaining an adequate level of literacy.”

The family reported the kidnapping but the next day were threatened. They were also told Fouzia was now Nazir’s property, and she had accepted Islam and married him.

“My sister has been missing for five days and police are refusing to register an FIR, my heart is broken,” said her sister Iqra Sadiq. “Our landlord is a cruel man and we have been starving since he stopped the little payment that was due to us. We have no power and have to face such injustice, please help us!”

The head of the BPCA, Wilson Chowdhry, said that the family will likely never see their sister again or have her released because the legal system in Pakistan is weighted in favor of Muslims.

“The authority of a Muslim man’s words significantly outweighs that of Christians, so they have little hope of ever retrieving Fouzia from a life of pain, brutality and debauchery.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in May urged President Obama to declare Pakistan a “country of particular concern” for not protecting the rights of non-Muslim religions.

ISIS Claims Kidnapping of Christians in Libya

Three African Christians have been kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

The group released photographs of the men bound and blindfolded along with pictures of their passports on various social media sites sympathetic to the terrorists.

The International Business Times says the three men were all migrants from other nations:  Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana.  A source told Reuters they were kidnapped in Noufiyah, an ISIS dominated town which was later confirmed by a government source.

ISIS has been attempting to strengthen their hold in parts of Libya, using the vacuum created by the governmental strife to swoop into areas not strongly controlled by the military.  The terrorists have also attacked multiple foreign missions in Tripoli.

The capital city of Tripoli has been controlled by the rebel faction Libya Dawn since last year forcing the government to operate in exile.

Meanwhile, another kidnapping of Christians is believed to have taken place in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that Friar Antoine Boutros, pastor of the Shahba parish, was kidnapped on July 12th along with his driver.  The two men haven’t been seen or heard from since that date.

The Friar had just finished celebrating mass when he disappeared.

Nigerian Businessman Connected to Boko Haram Chibok Kidnapping Arrested

Nigerian military officials have announced the arrest of a businessman who actively participated in the kidnapping of almost 300 schoolgirls by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.

Military spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade said that Babuji Ya’ari was the leader of a “terrorist intelligence cell” for Boko Haram.  Olukolade had been pretending to be a member of the Youth Vigilante Group so he could provide information to the terrorists and mislead officials.

“The arrest of the businessman … has also yielded some vital information and facilitated the arrest of other members of the terrorists’ intelligence cell who are women,” Olukolade said in a statement Tuesday night.

In addition to the kidnapping, Ya’ari has been a coordinator of attacks in the city of Maiduguri and helped plan and carry out the 2014 assassination of the emir of Gwoza.

Also arrested was a woman named Hafsat Bako who managed payroll for the terrorist operatives.  The Nigerian defense ministry said she was paid about fifty American dollars for each job.

Kidnapped Girls Forced To Fight For Boko Haram

The BBC has reported some of the Chibok girls kidnapped in Nigeria are being forced to fight by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

The broadcaster reported that Amnesty International said they were aware of 219 of the still missing girls who have been forced into fighting with the terrorists.

“The abduction and brutalisation of young women and girls seems to be part of the modus operandi of Boko Haram,” Netsanet Belay of Amnesty said.

A girl who escaped the terrorists told the BBC that Boko Haram would kill Christians in front of them as a way to cause fear in the girls.  The girl said that when she refused to marry a terrorist, they killed the men.

‘They were Christian men. They [the Boko Haram fighters] forced the Christians to lie down. Then the girls cut their throats’, the unidentified teen told the BBC.

“(The girls) told us: ‘You women should learn from your husbands because they are giving their blood for the cause. We must also go to war for Allah.’’

Reports last week say that two teenage girls who were forced to commit suicide bombing attacks in Nigeria were Chibok girls captured by Boko Haram.

ISIS Kidnaps 86 Non-Muslims In Libya

Islamic terrorist group ISIS swooped in on Eritrean refugees in Libya, kidnapping anyone who said they were not a Muslim.

The Commission on Eritrean Refugees reported the attack Sunday.

“IS militants asked everyone who is Muslim or not and everybody started saying they are Muslims,” Meron Estefanos, the co-founder of the International Commission on Eritrean Refugees, told the International Business Times.

The terrorists then began quizzing those who claimed to be Muslims on the Koran and took those who could not answer the questions.

The kidnappings came just two days after two Eritrean refugees were shot dead during a similar attack by ISIS.

Eritrean refugees are fleeing their country’s political oppression.  They risk passing through ISIS controlled areas of Libya to obtain a boat ride to Italy and freedom.

The refugees are tracing similar paths to Ethiopian refugees, just like the 28 Ethiopian Christians who were slaughtered by ISIS in April in their quest for freedom.

CER said that many Eritrean refugees are now trying to avoid Libya because of the terrorists.

ISIS Kidnaps 500 Children

Islamic terrorist group ISIS has kidnapped 500 children and Iraqi officials are concerned they’re being trained to be suicide bombers.

Farhan Mohammed of Anbar’s Provincial Council told reporters that ISIS was able to kidnap over 400 children from their region in less than a week.

“Daesh [Arabic acronym for ISIS] has kidnapped at least 400 children in the western province of Anbar and taken them to their bases in Iraq and Syria,” Mohammed was quoted as saying by the Christian Post.

The terrorists also kidnapped 120 children from schools in the northern part of Nineveh province.

ISIS has been releasing videos to social media showing children who are being indoctrinated by the terrorists.  They call their camps training for “cubs of the caliphate.”   The Iraqi Human Rights Commission estimates that 1,000 children have been trained by the terrorist group.

“They use children because it is easy to brainwash them,” Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory, told Reuters. “They can build these children into what they want. They stop them from going to school and send them to IS schools instead.”

Nigerian Army Rescues Almost 300 From Boko Haram

The Nigerian army scored a major victory in their battle with Boko Haram, saving 293 women and girls from a Boko Haram camp.

The total included 200 girls although they were not the same girls kidnapped from Chibok last year that lead to the #BringBackOurGirls movement.

The raid in the Sambia Forest is the latest in a series of military movements in that region where Boko Haram had maintained a stronghold in their campaign against the government.  The region is not far from Chibok, which had initially led to hopes the girls were from the Chibok kidnapping.

The terrorists announced they are changing their name to Islamic State’s West Africa Province after aligning their group with the terrorist group ISIS.

A security officer to the governor of Borno State, where the raided area is located, said that unless the military focuses on taking out the leader of Boko Haram, the kidnapping of women is going to continue.

“How could they rescue over 200 women without getting Shekau or the top B. H. commanders?” Hussaini Monguno asked of the New York Times. “How many were killed? Without clear explanation, people will always believe they just want to cover up.”

Assyrian Christians Refuse To Convert To Islam

Assyrian Christians kidnapped by the terrorist group ISIS have been ordered to convert to Islam but all of them have rejected the order.

The news of the refusal was given by an Assyrian Christian who was released by the terrorist group on March 1.

The man, calling himself “Robert”, told the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) that all the Christian residents of his town had been gathered by the terrorists and placed into a small room until the terrorists drove Kurdish forces from the town.  At that point, they were taken to a location on Abdul Aziz Mountain.

“They asked us to convert to Islam. … Yes, that was their [first] idea that we should convert to Islam,” Robert said. “Many bearded people spoke to us, and everyone asked us to convert to Islam.”

“They kept pressuring us to convert to Islam. It was their constant focus. But we were not mistreated.” Robert continued. “We said we would not convert. They said you must then pay the jizya [a Christian poll tax] or leave the country. That was the option given to us. We said we would pay the jizya but we would not convert.”

Robert said that the terrorists provided them with all the basic necessities:  food, water, bathing facilities.

Another released prisoner named “Peter” said they were tried in a Sharia court but ruled to be non-combatants.

Christian Missionary Kidnapped In Nigeria Freed

An American missionary kidnapped in Nigeria has been freed.

Rev. Phyllis Sortor, a member of the American Free Methodist Church, was freed by a gang of criminals on Friday according to a church statement.

“Early evening Nigeria time, Friday, March 6, Phyllis Sortor, Free Methodist missionary to Nigeria, was safely released into the care of authorities and Free Methodist church leaders,” noted David W. Kendall, for the Board of Bishops in a news release to The Christian Post Friday evening.

“It appears she was kidnapped by a criminal gang, and there is no evidence this event is associated with terrorism or religion. Free Methodist leaders express deep appreciation to all who prayed for Sortor’s safe return.”

The criminals had asked for $300,000 as a ransom but the church did not comment on whether any ransom had been paid for the missionary’s release.

Sortor had travelled the world as a minister for Christ with her husband until his death in 2008.  After his death, she remained in Nigeria to focus on child care ministries.