Release International

Human rights organisation Release International is warning that Christians in Nigeria are ‘sitting targets’, as news emerges that the family of a priest has been murdered in a machete attack in Jos. 

At least seven people, including a mother of six, were killed by Islamic militants in Nigeria’s Kaduna state just four months after attacks left more than 500 dead in neighbouring Plateau.  

At least seven people have been killed in fresh attacks on Christian communities in Kaduna and Plateau states.

Release partners in Nigeria are calling on the international community to help protect the church in Plateau State after a second brutal attack on Christians in less than a fortnight.

Release International is calling on the international community to help protect vulnerable Christians in Nigeria, after a further attack against Christians near Jos – scene of a massacre earlier this month. 

Plateau State officials have faced angry protests and hard questions after perhaps 500 Christians were murdered in villages around Jos, despite a heavy security presence in the area.

A mob burnt down eight churches and several Christian shops – apparently to vent their frustration over the unrelated death of a Muslim tractor driver.

Church leaders in Jos have appealed for calm after serious violence rocked the Plateau state capital again, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people.

Spare a prayer for the Christians of Maiduguri, northern Nigeria. For the second time in recent years their community has been torn apart by violence.

A church pastor was brutally murdered and at least seven churches were destroyed when Islamist militants launched a campaign of violence across four states in northern Nigeria.

Easter celebrations in Nigeria were marred by attacks against Christians and churches in Niger State. Mobs attacked churches, houses and businesses and stabbed a Christian youth in the chest.

Hundreds of Christians in Bauchi city in central Nigeria are now homeless and a curfew is in place after a wave of violence swept the state capital.

A Nigerian father-of-six has been freed from jail early after an appeal court ruled his conviction for blasphemy by a Sharia court was unsafe.

The wife of a Christian pastor murdered in the recent wave of violence in the city of Jos says she forgives his killers.

Islamist radicals in Kwara state have launched several attacks on Christians, accusing them of praying for the death of one of their spiritual leaders.

Muslim leaders in Nigeria are calling for blasphemy laws which, Christians say, will legitimise attacks on their community.

Nigerian Christians are furious that their government appears to have signed up in secret to become a member of the Organisation of The Islamic Conference (OIC).

A Christian policeman is dead and two teenagers are recovering from serious injuries after Muslim pupils devised a violent plot to force Christians out of their high school.

Christians in eastern Nigeria have been tipped off that the local authorities may try to seize land that the church has bought for a mission school.

Fourteen churches in one town have been earmarked for demolition in one of Nigeria's northern Sharia states.

Armed militants have attacked the home of an Anglican bishop in Kaduna state -- for the fourth time in a year.

As police tanks patrol the streets of Nigeria to prevent further attacks against Christians, a major new TV documentary on the persecuted Church in Nigeria is to be screened on satellite TV next week. The Remains of the Day, a co-production by Release International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide and The Voice of the Martyrs Canada, is being broadcast on Genesis and Revelation TV on Sky on November 20 and 21.

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As religious violence breaks out again in Nigeria in a row over cartoons of Mohammed, a Christian student has been describing how he had to run for his life after being accused of making a drawing of the Muslim prophet.

According to reports from Kano State, at least nine Christians were killed and churches, businesses and homes were burned after rumours that Christians had drawn a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed and displayed it on a wall of a mosque. Under Islam any depiction of God or Mohammed is considered blasphemous.

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The Bishop of Jos in Nigeria, who has survived another attack on his family, says he will continue to stand for the gospel to the end: ‘My belief is until my time is up I will not die, so I’ll continue to say what I know as a fact and truth and I will continue to stand on the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is worth living for – and it is worth dying for.’

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Persecution Now is the weekly bulletin of Release International, giving the latest news of the persecuted Church. Our top story: Muslim students in Nigeria are stopping Christian students from rebuilding their school chapel, after militants burnt it down twice in two months. Interfaith relations at the school have been strained since Muslims first burned down the chapel three years ago.