Nigeria — Islamic extremists have abducted 17 girls in northeast Nigeria, witnesses said Saturday as the West African nation’s military said it “remains resolute in decisively countering the terrorists.”

Members of the Boko Haram jihadi group attacked Pemi, a village in the Chibok local government area of Borno state, on Thursday, two residents told The Associated Press. The state is where Boko Haram’s decade-long insurgency against the Nigeria government has been concentrated.

In a statement late Friday, the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for killing “many Christians” and setting fire to two churches and several houses during an attack on the Borno town of Bimi.

Authorities blame Boko Haram for the killing of tens of thousands of people in Nigeria and neighboring countries in West Africa.

The abduction of the girls from Pemi recalled the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, a remote town situated 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. More than 100 of the abducted students remain missing.

The militants targeted a church and Christians when they stormed Pemi on Thursday, according to local leader Hassan Chibok.

“They were shooting sporadically after they rounded the community,” Chibok said. “Some could not have access to escape, so they abducted 17 girls.” Eight of the girls came from one household, he said.

Nigeria’s military and government authorities did not immediately respond the AP’s request for comment on the abductions.

Another resident, Yana Galang, said the extremists razed a church building and targeted nearby houses.

“Some of them (the abducted girls) are 10, 11, 12 years,” Galang said. “They just parked their vehicle near the compounds. You know, as children, they just carried them and put them in the vehicle.”

A Nigerian army spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, told AP on Friday that the insurgents were “desperate” to grow their influence. He was commenting on a video from a Boko Haram offshoot which purported to show child soldiers executing Nigerian army personnel.

“Having been depleted by our troops, the imbroglio in their ranks and the massive surrendering of Boko Haram, the terrorists, in a desperate move, are embarking on a recruitment drive to shore up their strength with child soldiers, who they could easily indoctrinate, manipulate and cheaply manage financially,” Nwachukwu said.

The Islamic extremist rebels in northeast Nigeria — comprising Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) — remain “very, very dangerous”, United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said this week.

The insurgency and its resultant humanitarian crisis, Griffiths told the AP, is “very difficult to deter (and) a grave and clear and present danger.”

Security analysts have told AP one of the challenges the Nigerian military usually faces in rooting out the rebels is their use of women and children as cover during airstrikes.

“They have also conscripted children, minors, who they engage as child soldiers and women, whom they use as sex slaves,” army spokesperson Nwachukwu said.
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വത്തിക്കാന്‍ സിറ്റി: ലോകത്തിൽ ദൈവവചനത്തിന്റെ സന്ദേശവാഹകരാകണമെന്നത് എല്ലാ ക്രൈസ്തവരുടേയും ദൗത്യമാണെന്ന് ഫ്രാന്‍സിസ് പാപ്പ. ദൈവവചന ഞായറായി ആചരിക്കുന്ന ആണ്ടുവട്ടത്തിലെ മൂന്നാം ഞായറിൽ (23/01/22) അർപ്പിച്ച ദിവ്യബലി മധ്യേ സന്ദേശം നല്‍കുകയായിരിന്നു ഫ്രാൻസിസ് പാപ്പ. നമ്മുടെ ഭീതികളുടെ ചാരത്തിൽ നിന്ന് പ്രത്യാശയുടെ തിരി തെളിച്ച് നമ്മുടെ ദു:ഖങ്ങളുടെ ചക്രവാളത്തിൽ സന്തോഷം വീണ്ടും കണ്ടെത്താൻ സഹായിക്കുകയും, ഏകാന്ത വികാരങ്ങളെ പ്രത്യാശ കൊണ്ട് നിറക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നത് ദൈവ വചനത്തിലൂടെയാണെന്ന് പാപ്പ പറഞ്ഞു.

ദൈവത്തിന്റെ വചനം, നമ്മെ നമ്മിൽ നിന്ന് പുറത്തു കടന്ന് ദൈവത്തിന്റെ വിമോചിപ്പിക്കുന്ന സ്നേഹത്തിന്റെ ശാന്തമായ ശക്തിയോടെ നമ്മുടെ സഹോദരീ സഹോദരന്മാരെ കണ്ടുമുട്ടാൻ നമ്മെ പ്രേരിപ്പിക്കുന്നു. ദൈവവചനം തീർച്ചയായും നമ്മെ മാറ്റിമറിക്കുന്നു; ദരിദ്രരുടെ മേൽ ക്രമാതീതമായി പ്രതിഫലിക്കുന്ന ഈ ലോകത്തിലെ വേദനകളോടു നിസ്സംഗത പുലർത്താതിരിക്കാൻ അത് നമ്മെ അസ്വസ്ഥരാക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നു. അത് ദൈവാരാധനയും മനുഷ്യരുടെ പരിപാലനവും സംയോജിപ്പിച്ചു കൊണ്ട് പ്രവർത്തിക്കാൻ നമ്മെ നിർബ്ബന്ധിക്കുന്നു. ദൈവവചനം സഭയുടെ ജീവിതത്തിന്റെയും അജപാലന കർമ്മത്തിന്റെയും കേന്ദ്രമാക്കാനും, വചനം ശ്രവിക്കുവാനും, അതുമായി പ്രാർത്ഥിക്കാനും പാപ്പ ആഹ്വാനം ചെയ്തു.
കടപ്പാട് :പ്രവാചക ശബ്ദം

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Malaysia – The Malaysian police only interviewed two witnesses nearly three years after Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his Indonesian wife Ruth Sitepu disappeared.

In an oral submission to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia’s (Suhakam) public inquiry on the case, the couple’s lawyer Andrew Khoo said the police’s uninterested attitude could be detrimental to the investigation, since the authorities only involved the couple’s tenants that stayed in the same houses as the victims three years later.

“So imagine the criticalness, if there was any criticalness in timing as the result of the disappearance, any advantage to be gained from that has absolutely lost,” he said.

In addition, Joshua’s brothers Huzir and Firdaus Hanim were also only asked to testify almost two years after the police report was lodged.

According to Malay Mail, Khoo stated that Malaysia needs to have a legislation recognizing enforced disappearances, to ensure that investigations into such cases will be conducted properly, and the authorities will have a standard to guide them.

“I think that we do need to have legislation that addresses enforced disappearance because it has been seen to happen with respect to Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat, it may have happened here, we don’t know,” Khoo said.

The session for final oral submissions held on January 20 was chaired by former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Seri Mohd Hishamudin Yunus, Sarawak Suhakam Commissioner Datuk Madeline Berma, and fellow commissioner Jerald Joseph. The panel will have to present its findings and recommendations at a later date, pending confirmation.

Joshua, a Malay Muslim-background believer, and his wife Ruth were last seen at their house in Kg Tunku, Petaling Jaya on November 30, 2016. Suhakam suspects that an enforced disappearance may have occurred for their case.
Sources:persecution

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