CBN News | Steve Warren | August 31, 2020
After a failed attack on a local pastor’s house in Kaduna State, Nigeria, in which shots were fired, Islamic extremists abducted four other people from their homes instead.
The Daily Post reports a 14-year-old girl, an off-duty police officer, and two others were kidnapped by Fulani militants in the early morning hours last Friday.
Rev. Elisha Abu Dreams, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), confirmed the report to the Post, saying his house was first attacked by the same suspected kidnappers around midnight.
Dreams said the extremists came to his house and told him in the Fulani and Hausa languages that he should open his door for them.
“Immediately, l and my family started praying for divine intervention from God Almighty,” he said. “While we were praying and refused to open the entrance to the house, they tried using hammer to break the entrance to the house but could not succeed. While they were making efforts to have their way into the house, we were still praying to God for help.”
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The CAN chairman explained that the militants opened fire with a machine gun, trying to shatter the lock. In the meantime, he telephoned the local police for help. By the time officers arrived at the home, the extremists had fled.
Dreams told the Post the Fulani militants were successful in gaining access to other houses in his neighborhood, abducting a 14-year-old girl, an off-duty police officer, a Civil Defense officer, and another security man.
As CBN News has reported, Nigeria is facing a serious threat from Islamic terrorist groups. Militant Muslims are waging an insurgency to overthrow the government and rid the country of Christians.
Since Islamic jihadists have lost ground in Syria and Iraq, the top general of US Special Operations Command in Africa is warning that Al Qaeda, ISIS, and other terror groups are now trying to take over parts of the continent’s most populous nation.
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Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson says Muslim terrorists have set their sights on Nigeria’s southern and northwest regions and the US is now sharing specific intelligence with the country.
“So this intelligence sharing is absolutely vital and we stay fully engaged with the government of Nigeria to provide them with understanding with what these terrorists are doing,” Anderson told reporters during a recent press conference.
Their goal: eventually turn Nigeria into a Muslim country and force Christians, who make up half the country’s population, to either leave or convert to Islam.
Leading human rights groups say what’s going on in Nigeria is a genocide.
“If you look at what’s happening there over the last 20 years, it’s just massive, massive attacks against Christians,” Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, told CBN News. “Look, 50 to 70,000 have been murdered.”
More than 1,400 Christians were hacked to death in just the first seven months of 2020 by Fulani militants.
Nigeria’s president, a Muslim, has so far done very little to stop the bloodshed. His police and army are also mostly made up of Muslims.
Nigeria is ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.