Nigeria (MNN) — The Nigerian government says 100 more children have been released after a mass kidnapping in northern Nigeria last month. More than 300 children and teachers were taken from a Catholic school on Friday, November 21. Fifty children escaped soon after the attack, which means that today more than half of the victims remain in captivity.
“It’s unclear how involved the government negotiations were,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations, “but there was definitely some pressure that was put on these kidnappers.”
Kelley says the November 21 abduction is “an example of constant disruption of the gospel, because we regularly get calls [from indigenous missionary partners]where we have to emergency evacuate or pull people from one place to another.”
(Stock photo from Lagos, Nigeria courtesy of Doug Linstedt via Unsplash)
Despite the release of these 100 kidnapped children, the big-picture pattern in Nigeria remains the same. Groups like Boko Haram and Fulani militants attack and abduct people at will. They often target Christians, who are considered soft targets. The government’s response to enforcing justice is lackluster.
The situation takes on further seriousness this Christmas, as memories of mass killings return. Two years ago on Christmas Eve, nearly 300 Christians across Plateau State were murdered.
Believers expect adversity this year, too. “That’s their life. That’s all they know,” Kelley says. “And they will not stop worshiping Jesus because of it [the danger].”
Pray for God’s strength for Nigerian Christians and His mercy over their lives this Christmas. Pray for their enemies by name.
“In northern Nigeria, there are dozens of different people groups or nations — including the Fulani, the Hausa, and the Kanuri, that are all 99% Muslim,” says Kelley. “When Jesus said ‘Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers,’ we can inject the names Kanuri, Fulani and Hausa into that prayer, because those are the places and the nations that need laborers.”
Header photo courtesy of Moses Adeyemi via Unsplash.
