When people think about the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians, they think about Middle Eastern countries like Syria and Iran or Communist countries like China and North Korea. But Nigeria has been the deadliest country for Christians over the last 15 years.
Over 7,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria last year because of their faith. That is 90% of the worldwide total.
One of the biggest attacks that year happened between December 23rd and Christmas Day, when Muslim terrorists massacred up to 200 Christians and injured 500 more in Northern Nigeria.
The attacks have continued this year. In October, the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram released a video of some of their members beheading Christians. One of the Christians was a young woman in her 20s. One of her killers identified himself as her uncle.
He said, “We do not share the same faith with her,” right before he beheaded her.
Half of Nigeria’s population are professing Christians who mostly live in the southern areas of the country. The other half, however, are Muslims who primarily live in northern regions of the country.
Northern Nigeria is where Boko Haram and other Islamic terrorist groups kidnap and murder thousands of Christians. But terrorist groups aren’t the only threats to Christians. Around the same time as Boko Haram’s founding in 2002, states in northern Nigeria reintroduced sharia law—particularly blasphemy laws—which infringe on northern Christians’ constitutional right to religious freedom.
This means Christians who have survived death threats from Islamic terrorists have received the death penalty from their state’s Sharia law. That is why Nigeria is the deadliest country for Christians. The blasphemy laws enable Boko Haram’s actions against Christians.
Since persecuted Christians in northern Nigeria need legal support, Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADFI)—the most effective legal advocacy group in the world in protecting religious freedom—has been supporting Christians and winning cases.
For instance, they supported the case of Reverend Jonah Gangas and his wife Josephine Gangas, who were accused of kidnapping a young girl and converting her to Christianity.
In 2013, police officers asked the couple if they would house a 12-year-old Muslim girl who had run away from home. She stayed with the Gangas family for 7 years, received an education, and returned home to her Muslim family after she graduated from secondary school. However, her family reported Reverend Jonah and Josephine Gangas to their governor, and they were prosecuted and imprisoned for over 3 years in 2020. Because of ADFI’s legal support, the court fully acquitted and released them earlier this year in March.
Recently two young women named Adah and Naomi converted from Islam to Christianity. When their families found out, they threatened to harm them. So Adah and Naomi asked their pastor, Ezekiel, and another church member, David, for help. With support from ADFI, the men helped the women obtain protective orders from different states.
In retaliation for helping the girls, Pastor Ezekiel and David were kidnapped by a group of men in February. After two weeks of torture, the kidnappers handed them over to the police, who released Pastor Ezekiel but charged David with kidnapping and promptly convicted him, without a lawyer, in three days. ADFI is providing legal support for David’s case.
Watch this short video.
It features their story and the stories of other persecuted Christians in Nigeria—and the work that is being done to help them overcome suffering.
Please pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Nigeria, and please donate to Alliance Defending Freedom International so that they can have the support they need to overcome the trials.
You can donate here: https://adfinternational.org/campaign/support-the-persecuted-nigeria