Call to fasting and prayer for Nigeria: The Church of England Newspaper, May 2, 2014 June 2, 2014
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.Tags: Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria
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The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called for a nationwide day of fasting and prayer in response to the escalating war with the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. On 25 April 2014 the national president of the country’s pan-Christian association, the Rev. Ayo Oristsejafor said that Nigeria’s hope lay in the Lord. Last week the militant group detonated a bomb at an Abuja commuter bus station killing and wounding several hundred people. In the Northeastern state of Borno near the border with Cameroon the group kidnapped 230 girls from a state boarding school and has fled into the bush with their hostages. Last year, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, but martial law has not halted attacks. Amnesty International estimates that at least 1,500 people — more than half of them civilians — died in the first three months of 2014. “The escalation of violence in northeastern Nigeria in 2014 has developed into a situation of non-international armed conflict in which all parties are violating international humanitarian law,” said Netsanet Belay, an official with that rights group. “Civilians are paying a heavy price as the cycle of violations and reprisals gather momentum.”
40 students murdered in Nigerian sectarian massacre: The Church of England Newspaper, October 14, 2012 p 6. October 16, 2012
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Persecution.Tags: Adamawa State University, Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria
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Christian leaders in Nigeria have denounced the murder of 40 university students in Mubi, Nigeria and have called for the government to implement tough new laws to combat sectarian terrorism.
On the evening of 1 Oct 2012, terrorists dressed in military uniforms went door to door in a student dormitory at Adamawa State University shooting students or cutting their throats with machetes. Some press accounts reported the killers were working from a list, and asked each man his name and then freed him, or took him outside to be killed. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Boko Haram is suspected of having been behind the attack.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) released a statement last week condemning the massacre. CAN national secretary the Rev. Musa Asake said “CAN rejects the theory of election dispute as responsible for the massacre of over 40 students, considering the manner it was reportedly carried out. It believes that the reason is phony and that such a theory, arrived at in haste, can only serve to shield the real culprits and cover up their motives.”
He applauded President Goodluck Jonathan’s promise to track down the killers and urged Christians not to respond to the murders with revenge attacks. “We call on all men and women of goodwill in Nigeria to join the government to fight what may snowball into a religious or ethnic war,” Mr. Asake said.
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Conger 