By BosNewsLife Africa Service

churchattack
Members of the COCIN denomination churches and other Nigerian Christians have faced a series of attacks such as these in this file photo.

JOS, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)– Islamic fighters have shot dead five Christians in a roadside ambush near Nigeria’s central city of Jos, church representatives said Monday, September 2.

Those killed in the attack, four kilometers (2.5 miles) off the Jos-Barkin Kadi Highway, were members of a Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) congregation in the nearby town of Foron, according to church officials.

The Christians had been ordered out of a minibus and forced to lay on the ground before being shot last Thursday, August 29, because of their faith, the COCIN denomination leadership and a witness said.

Those killed were identified as Pam Gyang, 33, Felix John, 32, as well as Jimmy Tiger, 28, Ishaku Gyang, 40, and Dachung Monday, 20.

Christian news agency Morning Star News quoted the local pastor Pam Jang Pam as saying that the assailants “were a combined band of ethnic Fulani herdsmen and Islamic extremist mercenaries.”

CHRISTIANS INJURED

Also wounded, he added, were two other as yet unidentified Christians, including a pregnant woman.

Technical school student Emmanuel Sunday, who said he rode his motorbike near the murder scene, told media that he had seen the Christians and that gunmen stopped him to ask about his religion.

“When I told them I was a Christian, they asked me to join a group of people already ordered to lie down by the side of the road. I did as I was ordered to do, and then one of the men came and searched me and took money from me, including my mobile phone,” Morning Star News quoted him as saying.

“It was when the gunmen started shooting and killing those of us that were Christians grouped together that I ran into a nearby maize farm, because it was already dark. They shot wildly at me, but I escaped unhurt, except the injuries I sustained while running in the bush.”

He said  God helped him escape to tell the story and “show the miracle” in his life.

JESUS “SAVIOR”

The pregnant widow of Pam Gyang, 28-year-old Grace Yop Gyang, said in published remarks that her husband is also survived by their two daughters and a son.

She said she was praying that  “through his death those who killed him will get to know Jesus as their Savior.”

Jos and other areas of Nigeria have been the scene of sectarian violence in which thousands have died in recent years. Church leaders have accused better armed Muslim groups of attacking impoverished Christians who have less abilities to defend themselves.

Aggression towards Christians has been fueled by Boko Haram, or ‘Western Education is a Sin’, a militant group fighting for an Islamic state within the troubled African nation.

Christians comprise roughly 40 percent of Nigeria’s nearly 175 million people, with Muslims and people with indigenous beliefs making up the rest, according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other estimates.

(BosNewsLife, the first truly independent news agency covering persecuted Christians, is ‘Breaking the News for Compassionate Professionals’ since 2004).

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5 COMMENTS

  1. THE DATE IS 4 OCTOBER 2013
    PLEASE SHARE AND TRANSLATE THIS MESSAGE!!!

    What are we going to do?
    I am curious!
    Are we one in Christ?
    Are Christians who they say they are?
    Who is sensitive to all Christian victims in this world?
    What will you say if God would ask..
    Did you attempt to pray as ONE BODY for those who suffer?
    Let’s see…
    Can we get together and say that we pick a date to pray,worldwide?
    All at the same time?
    All and I mean ALL??
    No matter day or night?
    Could we fast for one day and pray worldwide and make God say WOOW?
    These are my children and I LOVE THEM!!!
    Than the date is 4 october 2013…
    Make this message viral please?
    Fasting from 06.00 hours in the morning local time and ending 18.00 hours local time!
    For those who can’t fast please pray?!
    Let’s wave this prayer around the world together!

    God bless you!!!

  2. “IT” is what they do! And do they do much of anything else? No – I do not think so. Name ONE muslim Nobel peace prize winner. Double points IF you can sweep one up in “Science”. In-breeding is what done them in! No doubt – having off-spring with their sister and cousins and mothers I’d guess. In any case they are roaches that will have to be irradiated and damned soon. And we have allowed them into America. All of this is so damned stupid. American taxpayers paid a LOT of money for atomic and nuclear bombs. USE THEM!

  3. Dear John P. McKenzie,

    While we understand anger about Islamic extremists, we don’t go as far as calling for eradication of Muslims, many of whom are innocent victims as well of a Sharia system. We also have doubts about massive in-breeding, while another nuclear tragedy is the last thing the world needs.

    Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife

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