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 Centers for Disease Control has issued their highest alert activation over the Ebola outbreak.
Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC Director, announced on the social network Twitter Wednesday the operations center has moved to a “level one response.”
The last two times the CDC has elevated to a level one was the 2009 outbreak of bird flu and to cover the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The level one is basically an “all hands on deck” order to stop the outbreak of disease.
The increase by the CDC is coming in the wake of Nigerian authorities admitting they did not immediately quarantine a sick man who arrived on an airplane that later died of Ebola. At least one other person directly connected to the man died of the disease and five others are confirmed to have the virus.
“What we do know is that the Ebola virus, both currently and in the past, is controllable if you have a strong public health infrastructure in place,” President Obama said. “The countries that have been affected are the first to admit that what’s happened here is that their public health systems have been overwhelmed. They weren’t able to identify and then isolate cases quickly enough. You did not have a strong trust relationship between some of the communities that were affected and public health workers. As a consequence, it spread more rapidly than has been typical with the periodic Ebola outbreaks that have occurred previously.”
Dr. Pritish Tosh of the Mayo Clinic said that the conditions in the field to deal with Ebola are nowhere near the level of industrialized countries like the United States.
The World Health Organization’s assurances that the Ebola virus would not spread from an American man who contracted the disease and then flew to Nigeria where he died has been shown to be false.
Nigerian health officials confirmed Monday that one of the doctors who was treating Patrick Sawyer as he died is now infected with the deadly virus.
Nigerian officials now say they’re doing all they can to track down health workers who had contact with Sawyer and also those who flew with him on the flight to Lagos, Nigeria. Lagos is Nigeria’s most populous city.
Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu revealed that three other people have been showing signs of Ebola and are currently awaiting test results.
Authorities in Liberia ordered Monday for all the bodies of Ebola victims to be cremated in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading to family members at funerals or during transport to burial sites.
Doctors Without Borders says this is the first time Ebola has been able to entrench itself in major African cities.
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.
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram launched a major offensive against churches in northern Nigeria Sunday, leaving dozens dead and injured.
Witnesses say the terrorists descended during worship services and set fire to church buildings with Christians inside. When the Christians attempted to flee the flames, the terrorists would gun them down with automatic weapons.
A vigilante group in the village of Kwada said that at least 30 victims have been confirmed dead and the death toll was likely to rise significantly because a number of people fled into the bush and were chased by armed terrorists.
At least four churches were burned to the ground during the assault, including one church that was started by American missionaries in the 1920s. In addition to the churches, the terrorists set fire to the homes of Christians in at least two communities.
Officials say the terrorists also attacked the village of Kautikari to continue their assault but they have not been able to get a count of the dead and wounded.
The continuing failure of the Nigerian government to rescue almost 300 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram is being highlighted by a new round of kidnappings.
Members of the Islamic extremist group have taken at least 60 women and children from villages in Borno state in the northern part of the country. The BBC reports that in addition to the kidnappings, the Islamists slaughtered dozens of people as they raided the villages.
Boko Haram issued another call for the release of fighters in exchange for the girls. The government is still rejecting the trade.
The Senator for the region, Ali Ndume, told the BBC that he obtained reports that the terrorists also captured some young men that they plan to force into service for the Islamists.
