CHRISTIANS living in Katsina State in northwestern Nigeria are struggling to raise money to pay ransom for 26 women and two infants from their church who were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists during a Sunday service in January. The terrorists have demanded a 50-million-naira ($109,000) ransom to free the abductees, who were taken from the Global Mission Church.
As of mid-February, the village’s 50 to 60 Christian residents have all fled after they were again attacked by terrorists, who were apparently angered by their offer of a N800,000 ransom they managed to raise from selling stored food crops. No lives were lost, but the terrorists kidnapped four more residents, whom they later released unconditionally after realizing they were Muslims.
The sustained attacks in recent months targeting Christians in the area are seen by some as an attempt to wipe out the minority Christians in Katsina State.
Residents say the January attack occurred after several failed attempts by terrorists, who identify as Muslims from the Fulani ethnicity, to kidnap the 50-member congregation of the Global Mission Church located on the western edge of the village.
Halfway into the Sunday service, a convoy of eight motorcycles carrying two armed terrorists each swarmed into the village and encircled the church, according to Saidu Ahmadu, who was among the few worshippers that managed to escape. “They were shooting and shouting Allahu Akhbar [God is great],” Ahmadu recalled in an interview.
“They blocked the two entrances of the church with their bikes and ordered everyone to lie down,” said Ahmadu who explained that he escaped along with other worshippers through a narrow window.
From his hideout, Ahmadu saw the terrorists ferry the remaining 28 worshippers on their bikes to the western forest from where they had come. Twenty-six of the hostages were adult women, including Ahmadu’s wife and sister-in-law. The other two were infants – a boy and a girl.
The mass abduction follows a series of related attacks in the south of Katsina by Islamic terrorists from the Fulani ethnic group. In recent years, Fulani extremists have been blamed for thousands of deaths in Nigeria. The attacks in the south of Katsina often target the minority Christian residents, according to Lado Kambai, a Christian journalist in Kankara.
“Even the Muslims acknowledge it,” said Kambai in a telephone interview. “I met a Muslim resident in Gidan Haruna village and he told me he was feeling pity for the local Christians. And truly when you go there, you will see the Muslims living freely while the Christians live in fear and sorrow.”
Hours after worshippers were kidnapped in Gidan Haruna, a female Muslim resident who was kidnapped on the same day from a nearby village was released, said Kambai.
“That is what always happens here. When they kidnap a group of people, they always separate out the Muslims and either free them without any ransom or else for very little ransom. But no Christian hostage, no matter how poor, ever gets released without paying millions of naira in ransom,” he said.
The attacks in Nigeria are aimed at weakening the economy of Christians to allow Islamic domination, says Rev. Joseph Hayab, the northern chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
“This is definitely affecting the capacity of Christians to contribute to the spread of the gospel or effectively compete for elective offices and have a say in the governance of the country,” Hayab said.
