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20 Christians killed, others injured or missing in Fulani attacks that displaced 20,000
Armed Fulani herdsmen attacks on farming villages in the Kaduna state of Nigeria have continued as reports suggest that at least 20 people were killed in a series of attacks last week.
The National President of the Adara Development Association, Awema Maisamari, announced last Friday that four days of attacks from May 18 to May 22 targeting several villages in the Kajuru local government area have led to the deaths of at least 20 people.
“There were daily attacks and destruction from Monday to Thursday in the remote settlements of Magunguna, Idazo, Ungwan Galadima, Ungwan Guza, Etissi, Ungwan Ma’aji, Ungwan Dantata, Ungwan Araha 1 & 2, Ungwan Goshi, Ungwan Shaban, Ungwan Jibo, Ungwan Maijama’a, Ungwan Sako, Ungwan Maidoki and Ungwan Masaba,” Maisamari said in a statement, according to The Punch newspaper.
The Adara, a majority Christian people group, is one of the largest ethnic groups in southern Kaduna.
“As of last Friday afternoon 20 persons have been killed, several others are either injured or missing,” the Adara Development Association head added.
Maisamari said the “traumatized community members are reeling in pain” and “wondering why this contrived anarchy is still being condoned by the powers that be.”
“Since January, killings, maiming, burning, looting and kidnapping have continued unabated from village to village,” he said. “There have been 63 terrorist attacks and kidnapping incidents, more than 107 people killed, about 49 persons injured, more than 66 men, women and girls abducted for ransoms, more than 111 houses burned. Thirty-two villages were destroyed and 20,000 persons displaced, especially in the last two weeks.”
Kajuru resident Alheri Magaji, who leads the nonprofit Resilient Aid and Dialogue Initiative and is the daughter of the current leader of the Adara Chiefdom, told on Tuesday that she has heard of at least five people who were killed in the latest round of attacks in Kajuru.
She said that as many as 4,000 people are internally displaced in the Kallah district in Kajuru following the last spate of attacks.
“They are literally ones with nothing to eat tomorrow,” she said. “I’ve been trying to make a few calls to see what we can raise for them.”
According to data that was shared with her by a source on the ground in those districts, as many as 78 people were injured in attacks carried out between May 19 and May 24 in which over 600 houses were burned.
While there have been five deaths that her sources know of, she said, there could be many more deaths that are not yet known because the continued presence of Fulani radicals in some villages has prevented community members from going back to count the dead.
According to the data provided to Magaji, there are at least 51 people missing in Kajuru as a result of the last round of attacks.
“Right now, we can’t assess the damages because Fulanis haven’t left their villages yet,” she said. “I have pictures of three dead bodies but they haven’t been able to retrieve all the dead bodies because they haven’t been able to go back into the villages. These are just the dead bodies we found.”
“There are a group of people I met today from Kaduna town that told me that two of their peoples were killed two days ago,” she added. “One of them was crying and said her cousin was one of two people killed two days ago while fleeing. There was a roadblock by Fulani people and two people were shot dead.”
Similar figures that match up with the data provided to Magaji were reported by SaharaReporters.com. In a report, the website stated that five people were killed and at least 78 people were injured when suspected Fulani radicals attacked the villages of Idazau, Etissi, Bakin Kogi, Dutsen Gora, Ungwan Gora, Pushu Kallah and Magunguna during the five-day stretch.
The news outlet further reports that a Catholic church and two evangelical churches were said to have been destroyed as a result of the attacks.
The attacks follow a series of earlier massacres said to have been carried out by Fulani radicals in the Kajuru local government area earlier this month that killed over 20 other people.
In an overnight attack carried out on the Gonan Rogo village on May 11 and May 12, no fewer than 17 people were said to have been killed.
Attacks launched by Fulani radicals against farming communities in Kaduna are nothing new.
Last year, dozens of people, if not hundreds, were killed and many displaced when suspected Fulani herders attacked in the Kaduna state.
The attacks led some in the Adara community to travel to Washington, D.C., last year to spread awareness of their story.
“We came to the United States last year to talk about how these attacks are happening. And they haven’t really stopped,” Magaji told CP.
After the attacks against Kaduna villages last year, Magaji said that as many as 12,000 people were displaced from their homes.
But now, she says there are over 30,000 displaced people in Kujuru. She said most of them are living with friends or family members but some have been forced to sleep under trees or in uncompleted buildings. Some, she said, have returned back to their villages.
Across the farming-rich Middle Belt of Nigeria, attacks by radicals from the predominantly nomadic and predominantly Muslim Fulani herding communities have targetted predominantly Christian farming villages in recent years.
As a result, thousands of people have been pushed out of their houses and off their farms.
Estimates from the nongovernmental organization International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law suggests that Fulani radicals are responsible for killing as many as 470 people in the first four-and-a-half months of 2020 and thousands of people in recent years.
Some international human rights groups have warned of the genocidal conditions facing Christians in Nigeria.
The U.S. State Department listed Nigeria in December on its “special watch list” of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom due to the “lack of effective government response and the lack of judicial cases being brought forward in that country.”
Open Doors USA ranks Nigeria as the 12th worst country in the world on its 2020 World Watch List that tracks incidents of Christian persecution.
As thousands are displaced, Magaji told that the local government in Kajuru has banned “anybody from forming a camp” since last year.
“Normally, when attacks happen, the people normally go to government-owned places so the government feeds them at least,” she said. “But the government shut all the camps down. Even the IDPs that gathered in a primary school in Kajuru, the chairman of the ward said that they should leave the place and anybody caught there would be arrested because the government has displaced people.”
“It is ridiculous because right now we have thousands of people displaced who are being fed by kind-hearted people,” Magaji continued. “There is literally a humanitarian crisis.”
Magaji said the local government chairman recently accused her and other Adara advocates of lying about the attacks that happened in Gonan Rogo earlier this month.
She accused the government of “trying to change figures” to make it look like what has developed in Kujuru in recent years is a continuation of a decades-long “Fulani-herder conflict.”
She said a contact who works for a Nigerian security agency told her that “they are trying to reduce the number of attacks they put into the database so that it looks like there is an equal number of fatalities and injuries and all that.”
“They are underreporting the attacks on Adara,” she claimed. “The scale of the IDPs and attacks is so huge. You can’t support the government argument with figures on the ground. But that is not going to work because there are people on the ground taking pictures. They are really just making fools of themselves.”
Sources: Christian Post
Popular Bible app YouVersion says it has seen more people engage with the Bible this year than ever before, drawing closer to God through His Word and through prayer features on the app.
Developers of the Bible app point out the most popular verse from 2024 reveals that people have been seeking God’s comfort in tumultuous times.
This year, the most searched scripture was Philippians 4:6. It reads: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
YouVersion Founder and CEO Bobby Gruenewald believes it shows that people are more likely to turn to God when they face anxiety and daily struggles.
“In many cases, our anxiety comes from holding onto worries that we aren’t meant to carry,” said Gruenewald. “To me, this verse being sought out the most this year is an illustration that our community is seeking God in prayer and choosing to trust Him to carry their burdens—and we’re seeing that supported in the data.”
The YouVersion app was designed to encourage and challenge people to seek God throughout each day. It offers a free Bible experience in more than 2,170 languages and has been installed on more than 875 million unique devices.
“I was just trying to figure out how to use technology to help people read the Bible more consistently. And just had enough faith to start, to try something, and of course, what we’ve seen God do is incredible. Our faith has grown, but in the very beginning had no idea what it was going to become,” Gruenewald previously told CBN News.
Praying for Peace
Seeking peace through God’s Word is not the only thing that has increased this year.
YouVersion also saw increased interest in prayer around the world.
The words “prayer” and “peace” were among the top in-app search terms this year and the app’s YouVersion Prayer features went up by 46% this year compared to last year.
The YouVersion’s Prayer Team volunteers responded to prayer requests in 20 languages and prayed for concerns involving finances, healing, family, marriage, and anxiety.
The group has partnered with 24-7 Prayer International to facilitate “an unbroken chain of prayer, every hour of the day and night” among churches in more than 65 countries.
This year, they saw a 37% increase in the number of 24-7 Prayer Rooms they’re supporting.
“Throughout 2024, we have seen a rise in the number of people dedicating themselves to night and day prayer in different nations around the world,” said Carla Harding, International Director of Products for 24-7 Prayer International. “Our hope is that through continual prayer, the global church would be ignited in the presence of God and carry His love with greater compassion and power to the communities around them.”
Global Trends
It was a good year for YouVersion for another reason–more people engaged with the scriptures through their smartphones and tablets than ever before.
Every month of 2024 became the highest month in YouVersion for both app installs and daily use.
Across its Family of Apps—which includes Bible App, Bible App Lite, and Bible App for Kids—YouVersion saw an average of 11.2 million new device installs per month and about 14 million people engaging in the Bible every day.
Regional Momentum
YouVersion has also had a major impact in many countries around the world.
Bible engagement is growing at a fast rate in Central Africa (54%) and Eastern Africa (56%), compared to last year.
Countries like South Sudan (82%), Angola (68%), Mozambique (55%), Guinea (50%), Nigeria (35%), and Algeria (35%), saw a rise in daily Bible use in 2024.
YouVersion’s Bible App for Kids has also seen a big boost.
Nigeria, Senegal, and Cote d’Ivoire experienced the biggest engagement spikes among kids in Africa this year.
YouVersion is also seeing sustained growth in Latin America.
Many countries across the region saw a surge in daily Bible use, including growth in Nicaragua (107%), Venezuela (74%), Bolivia (52%), Honduras (50%), Cuba (45%), and Argentina (30%).
The Bible app is moving forward with plans to launch its first-ever Regional Hub in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in support of the roughly one million Brazilians opening the Bible App every day.
YouVersion’s goal for its Regional Hubs is to have a local team recruit content partners and churches to create a more authentic and regionally relevant Bible experience that helps people better connect with God’s Word on a personal level.
“It’s encouraging to see people throughout the YouVersion Community, in every region of the world, engage with the Bible at such high levels,” said Gruenewald. “These Bible engagement trends highlight the commonalities that can be found throughout the global Church—in the struggles we face and in our need for God.”
As CBN News reported, sales of physical, paper Bibles are also up 22% this year.
According to The Wall Street Journal,13.7 million copies were sold in the first 10 months of this year, compared to 14.2 million for all of 2023. Experts expect the total number to outpace last year once they tabulate November and December Bible sales.
Dr. John Plake, chief program officer at the American Bible Society, told CBN News why he thinks so many people, especially Gen Z, are engaging with the Word of God.
“They’re leaning into the Bible,” he shared. “They’re really trying to engage in their faith and they are kind of a bright hope for us as a young generation of American adults.”
Sources:CBN News
വാഷിംഗ്ടണ് ഡിസി: കഴിഞ്ഞ വർഷത്തെ അപേക്ഷിച്ച് ബൈബിൾ വിൽപ്പനയിൽ 22% വർദ്ധനവുണ്ടായതായി പ്രമുഖ മാധ്യമമായ ‘വാള് സ്ട്രീറ്റ് ജേണല്’. 2023ലെ വിൽപ്പനയുമായി താരതമ്യം ചെയ്യുമ്പോൾ ഒക്ടോബർ അവസാനം വരെയുള്ള ബൈബിൾ വിൽപ്പനയിൽ 22% വർദ്ധനവാണ് രേഖപ്പെടുത്തിയിരിക്കുന്നതെന്ന് ബുക്ക് സെയിൽ ട്രാക്കർ എന്നറിയപ്പെടുന്ന ‘ബുക്ക്സ്കാൻ’ പുറത്തുവിട്ട കണക്കുകളെ ഉദ്ധരിച്ചുള്ള റിപ്പോര്ട്ടില് പറയുന്നു.
2022-നെ അപേക്ഷിച്ച് കഴിഞ്ഞ വർഷം ഒക്ടോബർ അവസാനത്തോടെ, ബൈബിൾ വിൽപ്പന 1% ഉയർന്നിട്ടുണ്ടെന്നും കണക്കില് പറയുന്നു. ആദ്യമായി ബൈബിൾ വാങ്ങുന്നവരാണ് ഇതില് ഭൂരിഭാഗമെന്നതു ശ്രദ്ധേയമാണ്. അമേരിക്കയില് ബൈബിൾ വിൽപ്പന 22% വർദ്ധിച്ചപ്പോള് മൊത്തം യു.എസ് പ്രിൻ്റ് ബുക്ക് വിൽപ്പന 1% ൽ താഴെ മാത്രമാണെന്നും റിപ്പോര്ട്ടില് സൂചിപ്പിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്.
ആളുകൾ സ്വയം ഉത്കണ്ഠ അനുഭവിക്കുന്നുണ്ടെന്നും മക്കളെയും പേരക്കുട്ടികളെയും കുറിച്ച് അവർ ആശങ്കാകുലരാണെന്നും ഇവാഞ്ചലിക്കൽ ക്രിസ്ത്യൻ പബ്ലിഷേഴ്സ് അസോസിയേഷൻ്റെ പ്രസിഡൻ്റായി സേവനമനുഷ്ഠിക്കുന്ന ജെഫ് ക്രോസ്ബി ബൈബിള് വില്പ്പനയിലെ വര്ദ്ധവിനെ ചൂണ്ടിക്കാട്ടി പ്രസ്താവിച്ചു. 2019-ൽ, ബൈബിൾ വിൽപ്പന 9.7 ദശലക്ഷത്തിലെത്തിയിരിന്നു. 2024-ൻ്റെ ആദ്യ 10 മാസങ്ങളിൽ 13.7 ദശലക്ഷത്തിലധികം ബൈബിളാണ് ദശലക്ഷങ്ങളിലേക്ക് എത്തിയതെന്നും കണക്കില് ചൂണ്ടിക്കാട്ടുന്നുണ്ട്.
Bible sales in the US have surged 22% this year, driven by first-time buyers and innovative designs. Publishers attribute the rise to anxiety, a search for hope, and targeted marketing. Despite growing secularization, 13.7 million Bibles were sold in the first 10 months of 2024. Gen Z and younger demographics are increasingly drawn to Bibles for guidance and stability.
കടപ്പാട് :പ്രവാചക ശബ്ദം
One pastor from California is extra thankful this year for his training in mixed martial arts.
Pastor Nick Neves of Family First Church in Antioch, a city in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, confronted a would-be thief carrying an ax on Thanksgiving morning last Thursday, after the unnamed intruder broke into the church’s building.
“I shouted at him to stop, and that the police were on their way, and he ran and I grabbed ahold of him and we ended up wrestling in the parking lot of the church,”
When he was first approached by Neves, the unnamed attempted burglar tried fighting the preacher — but he was not very successful.
“I like to stay fit, and I studied in some jujitsu and kickboxing and I have a mixed martial arts background,” said Neves. “So it was very helpful to be able to grapple with this gentleman without having to do much harm to him.”
The pair wrestled for about 15 minutes before the would-be thief gave up until police arrived. Neves said he was able to pin the man to the ground and, although he got up and tried to get away a few times, the pastor never seriously injured the intruder.
“I knew I could outlast him,” the pastor said.
One of the church’s longtime attenders, Jeff Strawther, said the ordeal “could’ve gone in a totally different direction and we thank God that it didn’t,” calling Neves a “very tough” man the church is “grateful” to have as their pastor.
The preacher said it’s “ironic” the burglar attempted to break in to steal things from the church on Thanksgiving Day, especially since his congregation prides itself on providing meals to those in need in their community.
In fact, churchgoers had just given away groceries to 130 families in need earlier in the week.
“If he had come a couple of days earlier, he would have been blessed and get some food and be cared for,” Neves said. “But he decided instead to smash windows and desecrate property and do something that’s going to hurt the ministries.”
The pastor said he hopes this incident serves as a wakeup call to the criminal.
Sources:faithwire
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