The Slaughter of Christians
Nigeria: The jihad on Christians continued in the West Africa nation without letup. In what police described as a «brutal assault,» suspected Muslims raped and slaughtered Uwaila Vera Omozuwa, a 22-year-old Christian girl studying inside Redeemed Christian Church of God in Benin City. «We are all devastated by her death,» a spokesman of the church said, before explaining: «She [had] decided to do some private studies during the lockdown because the church was peaceful. She’s been taking the key from the parish pastor and returning it after her studies.» The slain girl’s mother described what happened after she heard of the attack:
«I ran [to the church] but before I got there, they took her to a private hospital and when I saw my daughter, I cried. They raped her; the dress she was wearing that morning was white. The white had turned to red; all her body was full of blood…. My daughter was very kind and very intelligent and disciplined. We had just celebrated her admission to university.»
In a separate incident, Muslim Fulani herdsmen entered a Christian-owned store and shot to death its owner and four other Christians. They did not steal anything from the store or from the victims’ bodies. Despite the presence of armed security, the terrorists were able to fire their weapons for a full ten minutes, before leaving without a trace. In response, Ibrahim Agu Iliya, a Christian, assembled and led a team of unarmed civilians to apprehend them. He said,
«These Muslim Fulani herdsmen have been attacking our communities because we are Christians. Their desire is to take over our lands, force us to become Muslims, and if we decline, they kill us… The government’s inability to stop these Muslim Fulani herdsmen is because the government is being controlled by Fulani political leaders headed by Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, who’s also a Fulani man.»
Sunday Samuel — who witnessed and survived the attack, and whose 42-year-old slain sister Asabe Samuel owned the store — agreed:
«I strongly believe that some of these security personnel who are Muslims are conniving with these armed men to attack our people. These killings of Christians here are just too much of a pressure on us, and the sad reality is that our people have made representations to the government at both the state and federal levels and nothing has been done.»
In another massacre on June 3 — just after a May terror attack in the same region, where «more than 30 corpses of slain Christians still lay in nearby villages» — Muslim Fulani herdsmen shot or hacked to death with machetes nine Christians, most of them church-attending women and children; a three-year-old was seriously wounded. Seven other Christians were kidnapped at gun point.
Burkina Faso: «Christians were among those targeted and killed,» a June 5 report found, after «armed jihadists launched three separate attacks … that left at least 58 dead,» including children. Dozens were also injured. A «contact reported that it was clear from the testimony of a survivor that the militants were targeting Christians and humanitarians taking food to an internally displaced people camp, where many mainly-Christian villagers had taken refuge after fleeing prior jihadi violence.» Intended victims who the terrorists discovered were Muslim were spared. A survivor recalled how the driver of his truck had cried «forgive, forgive, we are also followers of the prophet Muhammad!» That call had caused one of the terrorists to turn to the others and say, «They have the same religion with us,» prompting an end to the attack on the vehicle. «Jihadi attacks on Christians in the African nation have been on the rise,» the report added; «Last December, at least 14 people were killed when gunmen stormed a Protestant church service… Last April, gunmen killed a Protestant pastor and five other Christians who were leaving a worship service.»
Mali: During near simultaneous raids on three Christian majority villages, «suspected Islamic radicals killed at least 27 people, some of whom were burned alive,» according to a June 4 report:
«Mali has been in chaos since 2012, when al Qaeda-linked jihadists seized the northern two-thirds of the country. French forces intervened the following year to drive them back, but the militants have since regrouped and expanded their operations into neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger.»
A separate report elaborated:
«Mali suffered its worst year of extremist violence in seven years in 2019. Jihadi militants carried out murderous attacks in the north and central area, laying waste to Christian villages and causing hundreds to flee with only the clothes on their backs. In one of the worst attacks, in June 2019, at least 100 men, women and children were slaughtered in Sobame Da, a mainly-Christian village in the Mopti region of central Mali.»
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