Just over a year after extremists murdered more than 300 people in coordinated attacks targeting Christian villages in Plateau State, Nigeria, the faithful gathered for a special Mass to remember the victims last Sunday (January 5). Cover photo: December 2023, one of the many funerals service for the victims of the massacre. Bishop Michael Gobal …
Continue reading “Nigeria: Memorial Mass for massacred Christians”
ATTENTION, update: the two religious sisters were released on January 13. Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for those oppressed by kidnapping. Two religious sisters, Vincentia Nwankwo and Grace Okoli, were abducted this past Tuesday, January 7 in Anambra State in southeastern Nigeria. They belong to the congregation of the Sisters …
Continue reading “Nigeria: prayers requests for two abducted sisters in Anambra”
Kidnapping for ransom has become an industry in Nigeria, and priests are often targeted. A priest was kidnapped from the minor seminary where he worked, last Sunday, and taken by armed bandits into the bush. Armed gunmen broke into the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary, in the Diocese of Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria, at around 7 …
Continue reading “Nigeria – Priest trades places with two seminarians about to be kidnapped”
Aid to the Church in Need has committed to helping the Diocese of Maiduguri, struck by terrible flooding, with the provision of food, sanitation, medicine, and shelter. The Catholic auxiliary bishop of Maiduguri, in Nigeria, has issued an appeal for prayer and help in the wake of devastating floods that are affecting the city in …
Continue reading “Maiduguri, Nigeria-“Over 40% of the city is under water,” says bishop”
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) congratulates U.S. legislators for renewed commitments to religious freedom A bill approved by the U.S. Congress will go a long way in helping to fund efforts to promote religious freedom in countries where it is lacking. Pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has expressed its …
When he converted to Christianity, at age 12, Gerald Musa’s father could scarcely have imagined that his son would become the first bishop of his influential Hausa ethnic group. (Cover photo : Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa of Katsina welcoming guests at the airport. On the right, Fr. Ikokwu Onwuchekwa.) Though mostly used nowadays to refer …
Continue reading “Nigeria – How a bishop became a bridge between Christians and Muslims”
Nigerian priest Father Mikah Suleiman was released last night (Sunday, July 7) after more than two weeks in captivity. The parish priest of St. Raymond’s Catholic Church, in Damba, Zamfara State, had been abducted from his presbytery in Sokoto Diocese, North-West Nigeria, in the early hours of Saturday, June 22. In the days that followed, fears for …
Hundreds of children have been kidnapped from schools across Nigeria over the past years, but fortunately the latest attack on a catholic school was foiled and nobody was killed or abducted. The quick thinking of a headteacher helped save the lives of sleeping students after armed extremists stormed a secondary school in Nigeria’s Middle Belt …
Continue reading “Nigeria – Heroic staff save pupils as gunmen attack Catholic school at night”
A jihadist captive turned 21 today (May 14th), six years after being abducted from her school in Nigeria and held hostage for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. (Cover photo: during a protest in 2018, a banner to request Leah’s liberation). On her birthday, a pastor close to Leah Sharibu’s family called on the Nigerian …
Continue reading “Nigeria – Leah Sharibu turns 21 in Boko Haram captivity”
Local community leaders say that the attacks followed tactics similar to those employed by armed bandits responsible for the Christmas massacres in Nigeria. Religion is a factor in the conflict which also has ethnic and economic roots. (Archive photo: a woman in tears after the attacks of Christmas 2023. This Easter time, the same scenario …
Continue reading “Brutal murders of Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt continue”
