Abuja, Nigeria, Feb 10, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amidst violent clashes between nomadic-herdsmen and settled farmers in central Nigeria, Catholic bishops met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to work towards a peaceful, equitable solution.
“Herdsmen may be under pressure to save their livestock and economy, but this is never to be done at the expense of other people’s lives and means of livelihood,” the bishops told Buhari. during their Feb. 8 visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The bishops decried the violent attacks in several Nigerian states, including the state of Benue, where 80 people have been killed and 80,000 displaced, according to the BBC.
The Nigerian government has proposed the creation of “cattle colonies” in central Nigeria to provide grazing land for northern herdsmen, who have moved south because of the desertification of the soil in northern Nigeria. They have violently clashed with the farmers of the region, as cattle have overtaken some farmed fields.
Some, including the bishops, have asserted that terrorist groups are embedded among the nomadic herdsmen.
“Violent attacks by unscrupulous persons, among whom are terrorists masquerading as herdsmen, have led to a near civil war situation in many parts of the country,” Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos told the Nigerian president.
“The silence of the federal government in the wake of these horrifying attacks is, to say the least, shocking,” the archbishop continued. “We therefore earnestly urge the government to take very seriously its primary responsibility of protecting the lives and property of its citizens and ensure that such mindless killings do not reoccur,” said Kaigama, who was accompanied by Bishop William Avenya of Gboko.
However, the bishops told Buhari on Feb. 8 that there must be a better solution, one that does not clearly favor one group in the dispute. The bishops called for an alternative plan that would include assistance for the farmers who have been victims of the attacks by the herdsmen.
“We would like to add our voice to those of other well-meaning Nigerians who insist that a better alternative to open grazing should be sought rather than introducing “cattle colonies” in the country. While thinking of how best to help cattle owners establish ranches, government should equally have plans to help the other farmers whose produce is essential for our survival as a nation.”
The bishops added, “We work with the people at the grassroots and, therefore, have first-hand information about what they are going through.”
During the meeting, the bishops also advocated for the government to address the growing number of kidnappings in Nigeria by investing in better technology to track down the perpetrators.
The bishops concluded, “As the voice of the voiceless, we shall therefore continue to highlight the plight of our people.”
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Catholic Archbishop Matthew Ishaya Audu of Jos marches alongside evangelical leader Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam in front of the Plateau state governor’s office building in Jos, Nigeria, Jan. 8, 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, photo by Plateau State Government Media Team.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 9, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
Thousands of Christians rallied yesterday in front of the governor’s office in Nigeria’s Plateau state to demand action after more than 200 were killed in a series of Christmas massacres.
The attacks, which targeted Christian villages beginning Dec. 23 and continuing through Christmas day, left Christian communities in Nigeria’s Plateau state reeling. Photos obtained by CNA after the attack showed villagers burying their slain relatives and loved ones in mass graves.
According to Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, an evangelical leader who helped to organize the rally, the attacks also left 15,000 people displaced without homes.
Among the demands being made by the protestors, Para-Mallam said that they asked for an “urgent humanitarian relief material response by the state and federal government” and for the arrest of the perpetrators of the Christmas massacre, which he called a “genocidal,” “terrorist” attack.
Thousands of Christians peacefully and prayerfully march to a rally in front of the Nigerian Plateau state governor’s office building in protest of the 2023 Christmas massacre that left over 200 Christian Nigerians dead, Jan. 8, 2024. Credit: Photo courtesy of Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, photo by Plateau State Government Media Team.
The attack marks the latest instance of terrorists targeting Christian Nigerians on significant Christian feast days. In 2022, on Pentecost Sunday, 39 Catholic worshippers were killed at the St. Francis Xavier Owo Catholic Parish in Ondo Diocese.
Religious freedom advocates believe that militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen were responsible for the Christmas attacks. In Nigeria as a whole, at least 60,000 Christians have been killed in the past two decades. An estimated 3,462 Christians were killed in Nigeria in the first 200 days of 2021, or 17 per day, according to a new study.
Due to continued attacks, Nigeria is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a Christian, according to a 2023 report by the advocacy group International Christian Concern.
Para-Mallam told CNA that Nigeria’s middle belt region, of which Plateau state is a part, has “suffered sustained attacks for over a decade now with destruction of lives and properties.”
The thousands of protestors at the rally, he said, were “mournful, angry, but surprisingly joyful.”
Their “central objective,” he explained, was “to ask for an end to the killings not just in Plateau but Nigeria and seek justice for the people.”
Just-In: CAN Plateau State Chapter is having a Peaceful Walk to Government House pic.twitter.com/YbFRqtFI9J
“Above all, it was very peaceful and prayerful,” he added. “The old, the young all together felt that we had to do what we had to do to get our message across.”
According to Para-Mallam, the crowd numbered about 5,000 and included both Catholics and Protestants. Together, he said, they peacefully and prayerfully marched, ending in front of the governor’s office building in the city of Jos. Archbishop Matthew Ishaya Audu of Jos and several Catholic priests also took part in the march and rally, according to Para-Mallam.
The demonstration was “mournful, angry, and surprisingly joyful,” according to Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam. Credit: Photos by Nigerian multimedia journalist Jœy Shèkwônúzhïbó, used with permission.
The rally was organized with the help of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), a coalition of Nigerian Christian Churches and groups that includes the Catholic Church in Nigeria.
Para-Mallam said the purpose of the demonstration was to “mourn in solidarity” with the devastated communities as well as to show them that the Church “cares” and “identify with them in the moment of suffering and mourning.”
A secondary purpose for the rally, Para-Mallam said, was to “get the Church on the Plateau to unite and to speak with one voice around the issues of social justice” and to “create awareness nationally and globally about the Christmas season attack.”
Para-Mallam said that Plateau’s governor, Caleb Mutfwang, addressed the crowds at the rally and was “sympathetic and understanding and spoke well on the pains of his people.”
Mutfwang condemned the attacks shortly after they occurred in a Dec. 26 statement in which he said: “This has indeed been a gory Christmas for us.”
“He promised to relay our concerns to the president and committed to work with the president to end the killings in the Plateau state,” Para-Mallam said.
Despite the governor and president voicing their support for the impacted communities, several religious freedom advocates have been critical of the lack of government response to the growing terrorist attacks.
Maria Lozano, a representative for the papal relief group Aid to the Church in Need, told CNA after the attacks that tangible government support was largely absent after the Christmas massacre and that a “lack of response from the government” over the years has worsened the situation in the region. The absence of government support, Lozano said, has forced Christian churches to take on the “primary responsibility of providing assistance.”
Para-Mallam asked for Christians outside of Nigeria to help by offering prayer, advocacy, and humanitarian intervention.
“We also want fellow believers to encourage policymakers to encourage the Nigerian government to do more to end the killings in general and particularly those targeted at Christians,” he said.
For several years now, religious freedom advocates have criticized the U.S. government for failing to include Nigeria in the State Department’s “Countries of Particular Concern” list, which some consider to be America’s most effective tool to encourage foreign governments to address the persecutions in their countries.
“There is no justification as to why the State Department did not designate Nigeria or India as a Country of Particular Concern,” said U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chair Abraham Cooper and vice chair Frederick Davie in a Jan. 4 statement.
Cooper and Davie mentioned the Christmas massacre as “just the latest example of deadly violence against religious communities in Nigeria.”
Speaking on “EWTN News Nightly” on Monday, Davie said that the decision to leave Nigeria off the list was “particularly” concerning and a “huge mistake.”
Davie told EWTN that “there are some who are saying that the government [of Nigeria] if it is not actively participating in some of this religious persecution is actually standing by and not doing what it can to prevent it.”
“We just believe,” Davie explained, “that by designating Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, the United States puts itself in a position to work more closely with the government of Nigeria to address some of those fundamental security issues that are going unattended to.”
Despite this, the State Department has left Nigeria off the Countries of Particular Concern list since 2021.
Baghdad, Iraq, Feb 8, 2021 / 05:48 pm (CNA).- As Pope Francis’ trip to Iraq becomes more likely, the Holy See Press Office released Feb. 8 the logo for the first papal trip since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
The logo represent the map of Iraq with its historic emblems: the rivers Euphrates and Tigris –which according to an Iraqi tradition, was the original place of the Garden of Eden- and the palm tree. A white dove symbolizing peace flies with an olive branch over the Iraqi and Vatican flags, intertwined as a symbol of friendship.
Over the image, the motto of the visit, “You are all brothers and sisters”, appears in Arabic, Kurdish (or Sorani), and Chaldean (or Chaldean Neo-Aramaic). Arabic is Iraq’s official language, Sorani is spoken among the northern Kurdish minority, and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is spoken by Christians in the Nineveh plains.
On Feb. 8 the Vatican announced the schedule of the pope’s trip to Iraq, which will take place March 5 to 8 and will include stops in Najaf, Baghdad, Erbil, Mosul, and Bakhdida.
Pemba, Mozambique, May 2, 2019 / 05:29 pm (CNA).- Catholic Relief Services is appealing for additional aid after Cyclone Kenneth struck northern Mozambique last week, the second such storm to hit the country in recent months.
“Entire villages have been flattened. Roads have been washed out. And bridges have been destroyed,” Erica Dahl-Bredine, CRS’ country representative of Lesotho and Mozambique, said April 30. “We’re just beginning to fully understand the extent of the damage. In fact, the number of people who have been impacted by this storm continues to climb.”
Cyclone Kenneth struck northeastern Mozambique April 25, killing 38. It destroyed 35,000 homes and left homeless tens of thousands. Cyclone Idai had hit the country’s south in March, killing at least 900.
“The local Church is doing an incredible job of helping the people of Mozambique in both regions and has mobilized an enormous army of volunteers to assist in these dual relief efforts,” Dahl-Bredine commented.
“But additional support will be needed from the international community before more people lose their lives.”
Landslides have destroyed numerous roads, making it difficult for humanitarian groups to access vulnerable areas, and a lack of resources and immediate aid is a concern, according to CRS.
Cyclone Kenneth particularly damaged the coastal districts of Cabo Delgado Province. Even after the cyclone passed, heavy rainfalls have continued to devastate the provincial capital, Pemba.
Catholic Relief Services said there are more than 168,000 people in urgent need of help. Mozambique is one of the poorest African countries, with 65% below the poverty line.
Dahl-Bredine said some areas are more at risk: “On Sunday, landslides triggered by a torrential downpour were reported in certain low-lying neighborhoods. In one case, a landslide dumped so much trash on top of people’s houses that the ensuing debris caused several reported deaths.”
“This is a part of Mozambique that is already more vulnerable to these types of storms because of its relative lack of resources.”
Beside a lack of food and clean water, one of the major concerns is waterborne diseases, such as cholera, typhoid, and malaria.
“When a storm like this hits with so much devastation, ensuring proper hygiene and sanitation practices becomes vital to stemming a deadly disease outbreak,” she further added.
CRS is working with the local government to provide support to some of the hardest hit areas in Pemba, including temporary shelter, food, and other necessities. The country has also received aid from Caritas, Save the Children, and the UN, who recently offered $13 million to Mozambique and Comoros Island.
Maria Auxiliadora parish in Pema is housing nearly 1,000 people displaced by the cyclone.
As the area has a large Muslim population, Father Ricardo Filipe Rosa Marques told the Associated Press that the Catholic Church is open to all.
“We don’t ask about people’s religions, human life is all we value,” he said.
Although some Muslims have refused help because they have not wanted to enter a Catholic church, he said, a large portion of people have appreciated the support and banded together in solidarity.
“People here have suffered a lot. They have been through (Portuguese) colonialism, civil war and the recent killings. They have been living with scars for years yet their love and sense of sharing is amazing,” he said.
But don’t execute any murderers. Enroll them in investment banking courses while in prison and don’t give them life sentences per Pope Francis. Ignore Romans 13:4 by God….nothing bad will happen….look at Brazil, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, Quatemala, Mexican Sinaloa…what could go wrong.
But don’t execute any murderers. Enroll them in investment banking courses while in prison and don’t give them life sentences per Pope Francis. Ignore Romans 13:4 by God….nothing bad will happen….look at Brazil, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, Quatemala, Mexican Sinaloa…what could go wrong.