News Watch: Religious Clash in Jos; Christian Slaughter bounty in Orissa …
Religious Clash in Jos, Plateau Leave over 500 dead, 40 churches and the homes of 25,000 destroyed
Jos, city in the middle belt of Nigeria and capital of Plateau State once again exploded in violence between the 28th and 29th of November 2008, resulting in the killings of over 500 people including six pastors, as at Dec. 11. “About 40 churches were razed down”, said church leaders, along with the homes of over 25,000 persons according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Following the local council elections of November 27, angry Muslim youths who suspected election fraud, attacked Christians and their properties. “Police and troops reportedly killed about 400 rampaging Muslims in an effort to quell the unrest, and Islamists shot, slashed or stabbed to death most of more than 100 Christians” reported Compass Direct News.
One of the Christians murdered by fanatical Muslims in the rioting, was Oluwaleke Olalekan Akande of the Anglican Church from Ibadan, in southwestern Nigeria, who was on duty with the National Youth Service Program in Jos at the time of the crisis. Akande was a graduate of physics/electronics at The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
Among the 40 destroyed churches in Jos, they said, was the ECWA Church, Rikkos; Kaunar Baptist Church, Rikkos; Christ Baptist Church, Tudun-Wada; Nasarawa Baptist Church; Adebayo Street First Baptist Church; Sarkin Mangu COCIN Church; ECWA Church Kunga; Victory Baptist Church, Gofang; Deeper Life Bible Church, Ungwar Rimi; and Emmanuel Baptist Church, also at Ungwar Rimi.
Authorities’ efforts to halt the rampage, including a Muslim assault on a police barracks, accounted for the estimated 400 corpses reportedly deposited in a key mosque, according to CSW, citing security sources. Christians tried to defend their lives and properties, and non-Muslim youths reportedly began retaliatory attacks on Muslims, mosques and Muslim houses in the early morning. The Nigerian military arrived before noon to try to rein in the mayhem, which continued into the night. At the end of two days, hundreds of persons from both sides of the religious divide were killed, with others injured and hospitalized at Jos University Teaching Hospital, ECWA Evangel Hospital, OLA Hospital and Plateau State Specialist Hospital. More than 25,000 displaced persons have taken refuge at Rukuba Military barracks, NDLEA (Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency) Barracks and Police Headquarters and Barracks, according to NEMA. Rev. Benjamin Nasara of ECWA Plateau Church said the displacement of people who have lost their homes has had a severe affect on Jos churches, Reported Compass Direct News on Dec. 11.
Some pastors freely expressed their suspicions that the attacks were premeditated. “… Why were churches and clergy attacked and killed? Why were politicians and political party offices not attacked, if it was a political conflict?… We strongly feel that it was not political but a pre-meditated act under the guise of elections… ” said Ignatius Kaigama, Roman Catholic archbishop of Jos Archdiocese and Plateau state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
Plateau has had a history of religious conflicts: On Sept. 7, 2001, religious riots in Jos resulted in more than four years of bloodshed, killing thousands of people and displacing thousands of others. In 2004 an estimated 700 people died in Yelwa, also in Plateau state, during Christian-Muslim clashes.
People Encouraged to Kill Christians for Rewards in Orissa state of India
It has been reported that extremists in Orissa are intensifying pressure on Christians by offering bounties for killing Christians. This includes a payment of $250 USD for each pastor murdered. People in India are also being offered rewards such as liquor, food, and weapons for destroying churches and Christian properties. (Assist News)
New Testament Translated into a New Written Language
After twenty-three years of teamwork among Wycliffe Bible Translators, Wycliffe members Greg and Mary Pearson, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and the Lote people, the first New Testament in the Lote mother tongue will be available by the end of 2009. Lote speakers number about six thousand people scattered in remote villages on the southern coast of East New Britain, Papau New Guinea. Lote people survive by farming and live mostly without electricity. Before the New Testament could be put into the people’s native tongue, a written language form of Lote had to be developed as there was none prior to 1986. Nationals then had to be trained to read and write their own language once the written form was developed. (Assist News)
Wycliffe Receives Its Largest Gift Ever
Wycliffe’s Last Languages Campaign just got closer to reaching a monumental goal, as an anonymous donor gave Florida (USA)-based Wycliffe Bible Translators $50 million USD in November 2008, the largest gift in the ministry’s 75-year history. The campaign has the goal of raising $1 billion USD in gifts and pledges by 2018 for its effort to start Bible translation programs in all remaining world language groups by the year 2025. According to its website, 2.4 million people die annually in such communities without hearing or reading the gospel in their own language. Wycliffe USA president Bob Creson said, “Despite stock market declines and global economic uncertainty, a thoughtful donor took a bold step of faith.” (Wycliffe Bible Translators)
Network of Nigerian Missionaries Appoints New International Facilitator
The Network of Nigerian Missionaries (NNM) appointed a new international facilitator last year, Pastor Zion Okuneye. Okuneye, who lives in Warsaw, is a pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God(RCCG) in Poland and serves as the coordinator of mission efforts for the RCCG in Eastern Europe. NNM is a “platform for Nigerian missionaries, pastors, Christian leaders, and professionals serving God in the Diaspora.” Among its objectives is to equip the Nigerian Church with information needed to become more actively involved in world evangelization, especially to the least-reached parts of the world. (Network of Nigerian Missionaries).
Sources: Compass Direct, Lausanne World Pulse.
