By BosNewsLife Africa Service
ABUJA, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)– Christians and Muslims were grieving in northern Nigeria on Tuesday, February 4, after 11 Christians and a Muslim clerk along with his wife and child were murdered in separate attacks by Islamic militants.
In one of the latest anti-Christian attacks, gunmen of the Islamic group Boko Haram stormed a an evening service at the ‘Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria’ or ‘Church of the Brethren in Nigeria’ congregation at Sabon Garin Yamdula village in the Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Christians said.
The gunmen, dressed in military attire but wearing slippers instead of boots, reportedly opened fire killing eleven people, including the senior pastor, who died later in hospital.
The gunmen also attempted to burn down the church, but were repelled by youths and local vigilantes firing hunting guns, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) an advocacy group investigating the attack.
The attackers reportedly escaped into the bush, carrying away foodstuffs and five cows in their vehicles. Two church members were apparently still missing Tuesday, February 4.
BOKO HARAM ATTACK
The violence was the second Boko Haram attack on a church in the area in less than a week, investigators said.
As many as 53 people were reportedly killed on January 26 during when suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked a Catholic church in Wada Chakawa Village, on the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
Witnesses said gunmen also mounted a roadblock in a nearby area and killed many Christians.
News of the anti-Christian violence same while witnesses said thousands of people attended the funeral of prominent Salafi cleric Sheikh Mohammed Awwal Adam, known locally as Sheikh Albani, who was killed in Kaduna State
On 1 February, gunmen in cars and on motorcycles intercepted and opened fire on a vehicle driven by the Islamic leader with students and members of his family inside. His wife and one of his sons died instantly, while the Sheikh reportedly died on the way to the hospital.
CHILDREN INJURED
Three of his children and one of his students who were sitting in the back of the car were said to have been hospitalised after suffering bullet wounds.
CSW said the attack came after he spoken increasingly strongly against Boko Haram, or ‘Western education is a sin’, which wants to establish an Islamic state and has ordered Christians to leave the country’s north.
“Not for the first time, Boko Haram has murdered a Muslim cleric for not espousing its version of Islam, and has killed Christians who were peacefully exercising their right to freedom of religion,” said Mervyn Thomas, CSW’s chief executive.
“Both of these appalling attacks illustrates Boko Haram’s wanton disregard for the sanctity of human life,” he told BosNewsLife. “We urge the security services to ensure the perpetrators of these crimes are swiftly apprehended so that those who dissent with Boko Haram’s narrow and violent ideology are free to do so without fear.”
(BosNewsLife, the first truly independent news agency covering persecuted Christians, is ‘Breaking the News for Compassionate Professionals’ since 2004).
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