Nigeria

More Christians are killed each year in Nigeria by militant Islamists than every other country combined. The government’s inaction creates suspicion that authorities are complicit.

Boko Haram attacks villages, kills, and destroys. They kidnap children and young women to rape and forcibly convert in forced marriages. It aligned with ISIS, then splintered into Islamic State in Western African Province (ISWAP).

Leah Sharibu was kidnapped at age 14 with 109 classmates in 2018 by Boko Haram. Leah is the only girl who has not been released because she refuses to deny Jesus and convert to Islam.

Militant Fulani herdsmen armed with expensive weapons and machetes invade villages, massacre Christians, and burn homes and churches.

They rape, loot, and kidnap, inflicting trauma and economic devastation. Everything that is needed to survive – crops, livestock, homes, schools, churches – is destroyed. 

Christians are forced out. Settlers move in, and rename the villages to a Muslim name.

The pattern is occupation and control through forceful conversion, abduction, deception and early marriage and then the demand for independent chiefdom.

In one attack, "over 200 persons were brutally killed and our churches destroyed without any intervention from security agencies in spite of several distress calls made to them."

"There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage," Church leaders stated.

In an open letter, Nigerian Church leaders say the perpetrators always get away "scot-free".

Five Christian youth were sentenced to death for defending their communities. They were accused of killing a Fulani herdsman, who allegedly had killed 48 Christians. "No armed herdsmen has ever been arrested for prosecution even when they are caught in the act," the Church leaders said.

Christian Freedom International provides:

* Child sponsorships for Christian children whose fathers and families were brutally killed by Islamists.

* Support for The Treasure Center, a recovery home for Christian survivors to live, gain job skills, and find healing from substance abuse and trauma.

* Trainings for Christian widows to start small businesses.