Barnabas Aid - International Headquarters River Street, Pewsey, Wilthire. Phone: +44 1672 565030 Latitude: 51 deg 23 min 18 sec N Longitude: 1 deg 45 min 48 sec W .
Over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chri...

Email:

Over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from Christian town in Nigeria

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

Over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from Christian town in Nigeria

Country/Region: Africa, Nigeria

At least 230 girls were kidnapped by Islamist group Boko Haram in a night-time raid on a boarding school in a predominantly Christian town in Northern Nigeria.

Christian girls and women are being targeted for kidnapping by Boko Haram
Christian girls and women are being targeted for kidnapping by Boko Haram

Militants stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno state, on the night of 14 April while the girls were asleep in their dormitories. The Islamists herded the girls onto trucks and took them away. They set the school ablaze and looted and torched houses and shops. 

The Rev. Titus Pona, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Borno state, told Morning Star News that most of the kidnapped girls were members of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria. He said:

We have been praying for the kidnapped girls and hoping that God will intervene. So far, God has answered our prayers as 20 of the girls have escaped from their captors and have returned safely.

Around another 20 have since managed to escape. Desperate parents and volunteers from Chibok launched a search for the missing girls but had to return home after being warned about the dangers of moving into Boko Haram strongholds in the Sambisa forest.

The number of girls taken has been revised by officials several times. The Nigerian military on 16 April claimed to have rescued all but eight of the girls, but this has been refuted by the school principal and parents. The latter said on Monday (21 April) that 234 of their daughters were still missing.

Boko Haram has been abducting Christian girls and women for some time as part of its battle to establish an Islamic state in Northern Nigeria.

After issuing a general threat to Christian women in March 2012, the group, in a video released in March this year, specifically threatened to target schoolgirls.  

Girls and women kidnapped by Boko Haram are often forced to convert to Islam and marry militants; they are subjected to physical and sexual violence.

As well as kidnappings, the Islamists are continuing to launch deadly attacks against Christians and other targets. Boko Haram related violence has claimed 1,500 lives in the first three months of 2014 alone.

Christians are also being attacked by Fulani Muslim herdsmen. Barnabas Aid this week received a harrowing report from a senior church leader in Kaduna state, where Christians in the Manchok area have been repeatedly targeted over the past two years.

In a recent incident, on 14 March, around 600 Fulani gunmen divided into four groups and descended on Bondong, Rafin Gora, Hayin Birom and Ung Kura. They attacked the Christian residents, killing over 121 of them, around half of whom were children.   

Help us: Share this article

Email:

Over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from Christian town in Nigeria

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

christian, persecution, charity, church, persecuted, sookhdeo, Islam

Other articles

Follow Barnabas

or

receive news & appeal emails as they are published

From Twitter

From Twitter_icon

    Daily prayer

    Daily prayer_icon
    • In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to practise a non-Islamic religion in public but supposedly permissible to do in private. Nevertheless, Christians are sometimes arrested for meeting to worship in a private home. Pray that the Lord will protect all Christian believers in Saudi Arabia, including the many expatriate workers from Asia and Africa, and especially the much smaller number of Saudi converts from Islam, whose lives are in real danger if their faith is discovered. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed 20 hours ago

    • The UN estimates that there have been roughly 1,500 Iraqi women and children from the Christian and Yazidi communities abducted by ISIS and then forced into sexual slavery. Pray for them and also for the hundreds of Christian, Yazidi and Turkmen women held in Badush Prison in Mosul, Iraq by ISIS militants. The women are reported to be raped daily unless they agree to convert to ISIS’s brand of Sunni Islam. Ask our Heavenly Father to have mercy on each one of these women and children and to deliver them from evil. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Mon, Dec 2014 00:00

    • Around 200,000 Iraqi Christians and other minorities have been displaced from their homes due to attacks by Islamic State militants. Pray for all these displaced people who have no permanent home this winter, and who have mostly lost everything they possessed. Pray that God will protect them from illness and cold. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Sun, Dec 2014 00:00

    • Iranian Pastor Behnam continues to serve a six-year prison sentence. He is in solitary confinement and suffers serious health problems. Pray for his congregation left leaderless and desolate. Pray that God will be his refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. (Psalm 46:1) Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Sat, Dec 2014 00:00

    • Remembering that the infant Lord Jesus Himself fled from threats of violence with His parents, pray for the Pakistanis from various persecuted minorities who had sought asylum in Sri Lanka but are now being deported back to Christmas concert at a school in Bethlehem that Barnabas Aid supports Pakistan. This is happening despite protests by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Those being deported include Christians, Ahmadiyyas and Shia Muslims, all of whom are vulnerable to persecution in Pakistan. For example, any Christian who has been accused under the “blasphemy law” is at extreme risk of being murdered even if they have been cleared of the charges. Pray for their protection. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Fri, Dec 2014 00:00

    © Barnabas Aid 1997 - 2014 All rights reserved.
    Barnabas Aid is a registered trade mark