Release International

The killing spree targeting villages around Jos in Plateau state continues unchecked as at least nine more people have been murdered in the past week.

Three members of one family were killed in an attack on Kuru near Jos, while an elderly woman was beheaded and two of her grandchildren murdered in Shekan village in Jos South. Both are mainly Christian ethnic Berom villages.

Religious rights charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports eyewitnesses saying that men dressed in military uniform took part in the assault on Kuru – further fuelling speculation that some parts in the military may be complicit in these ongoing attacks.

The latest violence around Jos began last Thursday with what CSW describes as a targeted attack on three homes at the Federal College of Land Resources in Kuru.

Chub Job, his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Emmanuella, were killed in their home while two other children in the family looked on.

The gunmen moved on to two other houses nearby, killing a man named Gideon and an electrician called Hosea Ninzak. Gideon's son was wounded after being shot in the neck; a man named Mr Bolaji was shot in the waist but survived. Gideon's daughter, Alice, told CSW that she had told her father not to go out after the family heard gunshots – but he had insisted on going out to warn his son.

Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers used a blowtorch to set houses alight. They also set a bus ablaze but a fire extinguisher exploded inside and put out the flames.

The attack on Shekan, in which an elderly woman, two of her grandchildren and a man were murdered, followed two days later.

Meanwhile, in Bauchi state, Christian leaders now believe that religious violence in Tafawa Balewa (Prayer Alert, February 1, 2011) and Bogoro in late-January revealed that Islamist extremists were preparing for a large-scale assault on Christians.

Compass Direct news agency reports that the rioting – in which churches and mosques were set ablaze and a still unconfirmed number of people died – has exposed the presence of weapons caches and Islamist mercenaries in the area.

In Borno state one pastor told Release that he was very concerned about the number of Christians who were leaving the north and heading south to escape the violence.

News update:
Vietnamese pastor and pro-democracy campaigner Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly has given warning that he will go on hunger strike and refuse medical treatment if he is readmitted to jail on March 15. Pastor Van Ly was released on March 15, 2010, to undergo a year's medical treatment after suffering two serious strokes which left him partially paralysed (Prayer Alert, December 24, 2010). He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2007 for 'damaging national security'.

(Sources: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Compass Direct, Release partners, The Nation - Nigeria)

Pray for an end to the violence in and around Jos, targeting Christian villages. Ask God to grant His peace and grace to Christians in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro, Bauchi, scene of recent religious violence, and other northern states.

• Pray for an end to the violence in and around Jos, targeting Christian villages. Ask God to grant His peace and grace to Christians in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro, Bauchi, scene of recent religious violence, and other northern states.

• Please pray that Vietnamese officials will now grant complete freedom to Pastor Van Ly, who has served a total of 15 years in jail, including years in solitary confinement. Ask God to heal and restore him.

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