Tag: Boko Haram

Freed priest returns to France

January 4, 2014 Cameroon Boko Haram, Cameroon, Georges Vandenbeusch

Georges Vandenbeusch, the French priest held hostage for nearly seven weeks in Cameroon, returned to France on New Year’s Day. President Francois Hollande greeted the 42-year-old cleric at an Air Force base near Paris early on Jan. 1, after France Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius received him in the Cameroon capital of Yaounde. The . . . Read More

Nigeria’s Boko Haram strikes again in Cameroon

December 4, 2013 Cameroon Ansaru, Boko Haram, Far North, Georges Vandenbeusch, Nigeria

In April last year, churches were targeted by suspected Boko Haram militants. Some victims had their throats cut, while others were beaten to death or burned alive. Here is one of the survivors, whose name is being withheld to protect his security.Cameroon Human Rights Monitoring A missionary has been . . . Read More

Dozens killed in fresh attacks in central Nigeria

November 29, 2013 Nigeria Berom, Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, Church of Christ in Nigeria, ECWA, Fulani herdsmen, Plateau

Mass burials took place on Tuesday.World Watch Monitor About 40 people were killed in coordinated attacks on Monday night in four Christian-dominated villages in the central Nigerian State of Plateau. Local sources contacted by World Watch Monitor report that the assailants, believed to be members of the Fulani tribe, . . . Read More

Boko Haram targets Christian girls

November 19, 2013 Nigeria Boko Haram, Kidnapping, Nigeria, Quran, Women

Boko Haram is abducting Christian women, converting them to Islam on pain of death and then forcing them to marry its fighters, reports Reuters. Reuters tells the story of 19-year-old Christian Hajja, who was abducted by the Islamist group in July and was then forced to work as their slave. . . . Read More

French priest ‘kidnapped’ by Nigeria’s Boko Haram in Cameroon

November 19, 2013 Cameroon Ansaru, Boko Haram, Georges Vandenbeusch, Katsina, Kidnapping, Nguetchewe, Nigeria, Sahel

A French priest abducted in northern Cameroon is said to be in the hands of Boko Haram. “I can confirm that the French priest is in the hands of Mujahideen [fighters] from Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad [Boko Haram’s Arabic name], who carried out the operation that was co-ordinated with Ansaru,” an . . . Read More

Church welcomes US designation of Boko Haram as Foreign Terrorist Organisation

November 15, 2013 Nigeria Adamawa, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansaru, Boko Haram, Borno, Christian Association of Nigeria, Terrorism, Yobe

One of the major organisations representing Christians in Nigeria has welcomed the US State Department’s announcement on Nov 13 that it has designated Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist group (FTO). The Department also classified its splinter group Ansaru as an FTO. Boko Haram is believed to have links to Al-Qaeda . . . Read More

U.S. tags Boko Haram as terrorists

November 14, 2013 Nigeria Ansaru, Boko Haram, Children, Nigeria, Women

The United States has made official what Nigeria’s churches have long asserted: Boko Haram is a terrorist organisation. The state department announced on Thursday it has designated Boko Haram a “foreign terrorist organisation”, and as “specially designated global terrorists”. The Islamist insurgent group “is responsible for thousands of deaths in northeast . . . Read More

Boko Haram killing spree claims 110 Nigerians

October 1, 2013 Nigeria Boko Haram, Borno, Catholics, Jos, Kaduna, Nigeria, Sharia, Yobe

The militant Islamist sect Boko Haram is suspected of killing at least 110 people of various faiths across Nigeria during the past week, prompting the country’s top Catholic bishop to declare the rebel movement “has no limits.” On Thursday, Sept. 26, gunmen killed Rev. Augustine Yohana, a Catholic priest, and . . . Read More

Report: Nigeria violence is sectarian

August 20, 2013 Nigeria Boko Haram, Islamic extremism, Nigeria, Religious freedom

Boko Haram is the foremost perpetrator of religiously motivated violence in Nigeria, claims a new report issued by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The report, issued Aug. 19 as an update to a July 2012 report, documents dozens of Boko Haram attacks on churches and individual Christians since . . . Read More

Boko Haram under investigation for crimes against humanity

August 8, 2013 Nigeria Boko Haram, Christian Association of Nigeria, International Criminal Court, Sabon Gari

At least 1,200 people have been killed in the last four years in Northern Nigeria by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, according to a preliminary investigation by the International Criminal Court. The Court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said on Monday (August 5) the ICC is investigating Boko Haram for . . . Read More

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