Violence Heats Up in Nigeria
One of our students at DTS is from Gombe, Nigeria. At Christmas he went home to see his wife and three children under age 10. He must now move his family eight hundred miles away to Lagos because of severe persecution of Christians by radical Muslims. Please pray for the safety of this student, his family, and for wisdom as they deal with the situation.
Compass DirectNews is reporting that the number of Christians killed in an Islamic extremist attack in Gombe onThursday (Jan. 5) has risen to nine, and over the weekend the same terroristgroup killed at least 21 Christians in neighboring Adamawa state, sources said.
Membersof the Boko Haram group that seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) onNigeria emerged from a mosque near the Deeper Life Bible Church in the Boso areaof Gombe, capital of Gombe state, at about 7:30 p.m. and shot Christiansattending a weekly meeting known as “The Hour of Revival,” area sources said.Silas Ugboeze, who was in coma for three days at the Federal Medical Centre inGombe, died 20 minutes after Compass arrived on Saturday (Jan. 7), bringing thedeath toll to nine and the list of those wounded in the attack to 19. Ugboeze’sson Gideon was also killed, and his 12-year-old daughter, Victoria SilasUgboeze, was wounded in both breasts. She has thus far survived along with herbrother Daniel, who was also shot.
Boko Haram hadpublished an ultimatum in a newspaper on Tuesday (Jan. 3) threatening violenceif Christians did not leave predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria in three days.Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for killing at least 44 peoplein four states. In Adamawa, on Friday night (Jan. 6), 11 people were killed andmany others injured at the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in the Nasarawa area ofYola, the state capital. Earlier on Friday, 12 persons were reportedly killedwhen armed men claimed by Boko Haram shot a gathering of Christian tradersholding a prayer session before opening their shops in Mubi, Adamawa. The gunmenalso shot at another group of Christians meeting at a town hall to arrange forthe transportation of relatives slain the previous day, bringing the total ofthose killed in Mubi to 21.
Jerry Johnson, one of the Christians shot in the Gombe attack, was shot in the legs. (The photo of Jerry appears courtesy of Compass Direct News.)