ICC Discovers Deliberate Targeting of Christians in Islamist Attack that Killed 150 in Nigeria, ‘If You Said You Were a Christian, They Killed You’

Romans 8:35-37, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

“Washington, D.C. (November 10, 2011) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on November 4 members of a radical Islamic group, Boko Haram, killed more than 150 people and bombed 11 churches in the northern Nigerian city of Damaturu. While the press painted this as an attack targeting the police, Christian sources on the ground are reporting to ICC that the majority of the victims are Christians, who were deliberately targeted because of their faith.

The radicals initially targeted police stations and business centers carrying out suicide bombings that killed more than 50 people but went on to attack the Christian dominated neighborhood known as Jerusalem, where they burned down 11 churches and killed anyone who identified themselves Christians.

‘It was a direct attack against Christians. They asked: ‘Are you a Christian or a Muslim’ If you said you were a Christian, they killed you. They were selective. They attacked 11 churches, they didn’t attack any mosques. After the incident, I saw someone who was slaughtered like a lamb in front of a church,’ said Idris Garba, the Yobe State chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria. Damatauru is the capital of Yobe State.

Garba also told ICC that Christians are now leaving Damaturu because of inadequate security adding that ‘the government has not shown any concern to the Christian community. The government doesn’t consider Christians human beings. It’s terrible. We have not received any help from anywhere.'” Read more.