Christmas Eve, 2010. Dozens of armed men attacked the church, dragging the
pastor out of his home and shooting him to death. Two young men from the
choir who were rehearsing for a late-night carol service also were slain.
The group of about 30 attackers armed with guns and knives then killed two
people who were passing by Victory Baptist Church of Maiduguri, Nigeria. The
assailants only left after setting the church and pastor’s house ablaze.
Danjuma Akawu, the church’s secretary, managed to escape after he and others
climbed over the church’s fence. “I cannot understand these attacks, Akawu
said. “Why Christians? Why Christians? The police have failed to protect
us.”
At the opposite end of the city, Rev. Haskanda Jessu with the Church of
Christ in Nigeria said that three men attacked his church an hour later,
killing a 60-year-old security guard.
At least 38 people died over the holiday weekend in attacks across Nigeria,
including the six killed at the churches in the country’s north by suspected
members of a radical Muslim sect. In central Nigeria, 32 died in a series of
bomb blasts. Two of the bombs went off near a large market where people were
doing last-minute Christmas shopping. A third hit a mainly Christian area of
Jos.
The group blamed for the church attacks – the radical Muslim sect known as
Boko Haram – used to be based in Bauchi, about 75 miles from the area where
the bombs went off. The group is now headquartered in Maiduguri, where the
church attacks took place Christmas Eve.
The African Union Commission’s Chairman, Jean Ping, expressed shock and
sadness at the explosions in Jos and church attacks in Maiduguri. “He
condemns in the strongest terms these cowardly terrorist attacks, which
cannot be justified under any circumstances,” said a statement released by
his office Sunday.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his sympathy to the
victims’ families and said the government will bring the perpetrators to
justice. “I assure Nigerians that government will go to the root of this,”
he said of the explosions. “We must unearth what caused it and those behind
it must be brought to book.”
Religious violence already has left more than 500 people dead this year in
Jos and neighboring towns and villages, but the situation was believed to
have calmed down before the weekend bombings. The explosions Friday were the
first major attack in Jos since the state government lifted a curfew in May.
Nigeria, a country of 150 million people, is almost evenly split between
Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. The blasts
happened in central Nigeria, in the nation’s “middle belt,” where dozens of
ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.
The violence, though fractured across religious lines, often has more to do
with local politics, economics and rights to grazing lands. The government
of Plateau state, where Jos is the capital, is controlled by Christian
politicians who have blocked Muslims from being legally recognized as
citizens. That has locked many out of prized government jobs in a region
where the tourism industry and tin mining have collapsed in the last
decades. “What has happened on the eve of Christmas is unfortunate,
especially at this time when we want to ensure peace and security in the
state,” said Gregory Yenlong, the state commissioner for information.
Police and the army have declined to list any suspects in the bombing
attacks in Jos, and state governor David Jang would only say “we believe
some highly placed people masterminded the attack.” But they have already
blamed the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram for the Christmas Eve church
attacks. Boko Haram means “Western education is sacrilege” in the Hausa
language. Its members re-emerged recently after starting a July 2009 riot
that led to a violent security crackdown, which left 700 people dead.
Police accuse Boko Haram members of a rash of targeted killings in recent
months during which more than 30 people have been killed including police
officers, soldiers, political and spiritual leaders.
The holiday violence in Nigeria comes as the president, a Christian from the
south of Nigeria, is trying to unify the country ahead of next year’s
election. Jonathan became president earlier this year following the death of
Nigeria’s elected Muslim leader, and some within his party feel the next
leader should also be Muslim.
[From Associated Press, Njadvara Musa reporting]
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”