A church in rural Nigeria was attacked by jihadists Wednesday with at least two people murdered before the pastor and some worshippers were kidnapped, police and witnesses said. The attack comes just days after 25 girls were abducted from a boarding school.
Video released by The Times shows the congregation cowering as masked men with rifles and machetes stormed the service in the western state of Kwara. The intruders sprayed the pews with bullets, killing at least two people.
Children can be heard screaming as shots ring out at Christ Apostolic Church in the town of Eruku.
Reuters reports the assault puts more pressure on the government, which is under scrutiny from U.S. President Donald Trump who has threatened military action over the seemingly endless persecution of innocent Christians.
The report notes President Bola Tinubu postponed a planned trip to South Africa and Angola for G20 and AU-EU summits to receive security briefings on the two recent attacks, and ordered more security to hunt down the assailants in Kwara, his office said.
The president also directed the security agencies “to do everything possible” to rescue the schoolgirls, “abducted by the bandits and bring the girls back home safe”, his spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said.
Rapper Nicki Minaj appealed on Tuesday for global action to defend religious freedom in general and Christian persecution in particular, as Breitbart News reported.
Speaking at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, the Trinidad-born artist, who lives in New York, said in Nigeria “Christians are being targeted, driven from their homes and killed.”
Details of the latest anti-Christian attack in Nigeria are still coming to light, but the Reuters report outlines police responded to gunfire at around 6 p.m. and discovered one person fatally shot inside the church and another in a nearby bush, said Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, police spokesperson for Kwara state.
Witnesses said they counted at least three dead church members.
“They later rounded up some worshippers, including the pastor, and took them into the bush,” parishioner Joseph Bitrus told Reuters by phone, without saying how many were taken.
At least 1,500 students have been seized in the region since Boko Haram jihadist extremists snatched 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014 with Christians across Africa facing year-on-year threats to their very existence.
The Times notes analysts and residents blame the Nigeria lawless insecurity on a failure to prosecute known attackers, and the rampant corruption that limits weapons supplies to security forces while ensuring a steady supply to the gangs.
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