How a young woman overcame the pain of losing her father and forgave his murderers On the evening before Easter Sunday 2012, Comfort Jessy sat in the enclosed courtyard of her home in Nigeria chatting with her parents, older siblings and some neighbors. Around 11 p.m., they heard bombing in the distance, and less than 60 minutes later, Boko Haram militants were burning the church next door and pounding on the gate in front of their home. Comfort’s mother, Juliana, helped her husband hide in one of the back bedrooms, covering him with clothes. “God, we are in Your hands,” she prayed. Several militants entered to search the house while others dragged Juliana into the courtyard, striking her with their guns and taunting her about her faith. “You Christians say God has a son,” they said. “Call on that son! Today is your last day; your own life is over.” They then forced Julianna to kneel. “They said that if they don’t get their man, they will kill her,” Comfort said. “My mother said, ‘Even though I see your gun, I will not fear you.’” One of the men gave a shout from inside the house — he had found
Read MoreAisha Granger is not your typical seminary student. She’s 43, a divorced mother of two children, and she’s Fulani, a member of the predominantly Muslim nomadic tribe spread across West Africa. Her journey started with a desire to learn. “I really wanted to go to school,” Aisha said, “but growing up in a Muslim environment as a Muslim girl, your orientation is toward growing up and being a good Muslim, a good mother.” Aisha followed cultural norms by marrying at age 18 and giving birth to her first child a year later. As a young woman, she studied at the College of Islamic Studies in Bauchi state and became a state representative for the Federation of Muslim Women. She even converted her living room into a mosque where women could pray, since Islam does not allow women to mix with men for prayer at the community mosque. “I used to be a very fanatical Muslim,” she said. “We were taught that Christians are infidels and we should not befriend them; we should not listen to them because they are not worshipers of Allah. We were always encouraged to stay away from Christians because they will make us turn away from
Read MoreLike many Christians in northern Nigeria, Alice has suffered multiple attacks from Muslim extremists, but she is not disheartened because she knows that Christ told us His followers would suffer. Though it has been nine years since her husband was murdered by militant Islamic Fulani herdsmen, every time Alice Bulus hears about a new attack, she re-lives the pain of the day he died. “When I hear the sound of a gun, I panic,” Alice said. Alice and her family were asleep when men with covered faces stormed into their home around midnight on Jan. 13, 2011, in Nigeria’s Plateau state. After calling her husband by name, the men shot him as he opened the bedroom door. Alice, who recognized one of the attackers as a neighbor, tried to stop the bleeding as her husband lay crumpled on the floor and their five terrified children cried in the corner. When the Nigerian military arrived in their village about an hour later, they took Alice’s husband to the hospital. But it was too late; he died on the way to surgery. Crisis upon Crisis In Nigeria, they call it a crisis. Attacks by Boko Haram terrorists and nomadic Fulani militants are
Read MoreDalo arrived at the hospital with second-degree burns over most of his body. He had been left for dead by Fulani Islamic militants after one of a series of attacks that June that had killed hundreds, including his parents and siblings, while leaving thousands homeless. But eight-year-old Dalo did not despair. Though he had lost everything, the words on Dalo’s lips were not filled with anger or revenge. He was praying for those who had attacked him and his family. Life for Christians like Dalo in central Nigeria had not been considered especially dangerous relative to what believers faced in the north. Muslims in northern Nigeria have long desired to create a separate country governed by Islamic law, and the extremist group Boko Haram has served as the primary weapon in that fight, recently enlisting the help of Fulani Islamic militants. But violence from the northern states has gradually crept southward, and in late June 2018, five hundred armed Fulani Islamic militants attacked the areas of Barkin Ladi and Jos South, killing two hundred and displacing ten thousand — mostly Christians. The attacks ripped apart families and left thousands grieving. Oneyoung girl arrived home from school to find that her
Read MoreMonica Ogah’s grandmother was dying, and all she wanted was to return to her home in the village of Godogodo, Nigeria. Ogah’s younger brother, Zwandien, urged them not to go; militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen, who had been radicalized by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, had attacked the village just six weeks earlier. But wanting to honor her grandmother’s request, Ogah and her mother decided to take her back to Godogodo. On October 15, 2016, Zwandien’s fears were realized when the militant Islamic Fulani herdsmen returned to Godogodo, shooting villagers and setting homes ablaze. Ogah, her mother, and her terminally ill grandmother hid in a small room inside their home as the sound of gunfire and shouting grew louder. They waited in silence, hoping the attackers would soon pass. Then, during a pause in the gunfire and shouting, Ogah’s grandmother coughed uncontrollably, alerting the attackers to their hiding place. Five men barged into the room and surrounded the women, pointing their weapons and shouting threats. Ogah and her mother begged the men to spare their lives, to allow them to care for Ogah’s aging grandmother in her final days. Finally, the attackers agreed to a compromise: They would kill only
Read MoreThree Christians were killed on Feb. 25 in an attack on a predominantly Christian community in eastern Nigeria, near Chibok. The attackers, thought to have been members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), also destroyed a local church building.
Read MoreMilitant Fulani Muslims attacked a village in southern Kaduna state on Jan. 30, killing 11 Christians and burning most of the homes in the village.
Read MoreMembers of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorist group attacked Pemi village on Jan. 20, killing one Christian and kidnapping 17 Christian teenage girls. The attackers also burned several homes and a local church building.
Read MoreSept. 11, 2014, began as a happy day for Mary Patrick. She and her older sister were walking to a wedding in a nearby village with the bride-to-be and the bride’s younger sister. But their lives, like those of many other young women in Nigeria, changed forever with the terrifying sound of yelling and gunfire. Mary, who was 24 years old, quickly hid in a nearby house with the others when the Boko Haram attack began in Adamawa state, in northeastern Nigeria. They hid in the house for four days before being captured while trying to escape. “The only thing I was thinking when they took me is that I will die,” Mary said. “I know they will kill me. I’m just praying to God everything that I do that is wrong, that the good Lord will forgive me.” The horror that Mary faced during four months of captivity with Boko Haram became clear to a front-line worker when he tried to buy her a meal. “I wanted to buy food for her and bought some meat,” the worker said. “She told me she couldn’t eat the meat. She said, ‘In the camp they used to eat human flesh, so
Read MoreMilitant Fulani Muslims attacked two predominantly Christian villages last month, killing four and wounding others. Two of the Christians were ambushed as they returned from their farms, while the bodies of the other two were discovered later by villagers who survived.
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