Herdsmen disrupted church
services killing at about 13 Christians a survivor of the attacks told Morning
Star News that the herdsmen killed two Christian women in Ninte village on
Monday, August 1 2016.
The source further revealed
that she knew of eight Christians killed in Gada Biyu on Tuesday, August 2.
Local newspapers reported
nine people were killed in Gada Biyu, with another two men killed in Akwa’a on
Wednesday, August 3.
News of the massacre comes
on the same day a new report was released by Media Research Center showing the
US media have covered up the genocide of Christians in the Middle East.
One of hundreds of
Christians displaced from the area, Martha Yohanna of Alheri Baptist Church in
Gada Biyu village, told Morning Star News that the attacks on Ninte and Gada
Biyu villages were carried out by Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
The Muslim herdsmen have
become heavily armed in recent years.
“On Aug. 1 at about noon in
Ninte, the Fulani herdsmen attacked two Christian women and a man while they
were on their farm,” she said.
“They cut them with
machetes. A woman and her daughter in-law were killed by the Fulani herdsmen
while the man is still in the hospital as I talk with you.”
The next day, the Fulani
herdsmen killed eight Christians in Gada Biyu, including five identified only
as Friday, Akoro, Mamman, Danladi, and Jerry, she said.
Her brother-in-law,
25-year-old Joseph, is missing and is presumed to have been killed by the
herdsmen, Yohanna told the news service.
“It is over a week now that
he has not been seen, and nothing has been heard about him,” she said.
On Wednesday, Auguat 3,
after security forces had turned away the herdsmen, she said the assailants
returned to Gada Biyu at about 6pm to burn down houses.
“They carried out the
destruction for three hours,” Yohanna said. “I escaped from Gada Biyu to Gidan
Waya on Monday [Aug. 1] when the Fulani came to attack the village at noon, and
returned on Wednesday afternoon to retrieve some of our clothing.
By the evening of that
Wednesday, the Fulani herdsmen returned to my village to destroy our homes.
They lit fire on some houses before policemen and soldiers were brought there
to repel them.”
Stories of harrowing escapes
are emerging from Nigeria, in Gada Biyu, near the Kafanchan, three Christian
congregations were displaced as a result of the attack, Yohanna said. They
include: Alheri Baptist Church, Sabon Rai Baptist Church and an Evangelical
Church Winning All.
“The three pastors escaped
from the village during the attack, and since the attack have not returned to
the village,” she said.
“My pastor, the Rev Nathan
Jaweson of Alheri Baptist Church, on Monday, following the killing of the two
women in Ninte village, evacuated his family to Godogodo and returned to Gada
Biyu.”
The pastor narrowly escaped
being killed on Aug. 2 as he swam across the river at Gada Biyu. He’s now
living as a refugee in Kafanchan.
The pastor of the ECWA
church has fled to Godogodo, while the whereabouts of the pastor of Sabon Rai
Baptist Church are unknown, Yohanna said. Because of the attacks, the three
churches of Gada Biyu held no worship services on Sunday, August 7. Alheri Baptist Church normally has about 300
members.
Sad
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