[Today’s Prayer] Six killed including one pastor in shooting at Christian village in Nigeria

A pastor and five Christians lost their lives in an attack by Fulani herdsmen in Nasarawa State, central Nigeria.

In an interview with CDI-Morning Star News, Denis Utsa, the leader of the Kadarko area in Kiana County, Nasarawa State, said that Fulani herdsmen opened fire in Tse-Abir Azer on the 22nd (local time hereinbelow), a village with mostly Christian population, killing two Christians, including Pastor Kingsley Orshase.

Utsa said Muslim Fulani herdsmen invaded the Tse-Abir Azer village in Kadarko around 4 p.m. In addition to those killed, dozens of Christians were injured. Pastor Orshase, who was shot by terrorists, suffered fatal injuries and was transferred to a hospital in Lafia on the 23rd, but eventually died.

It is reported that the assailants carried out a second attack the next day, the 24th, killing four Christian farmers in the Kadarko region.

Utsa said the death toll from the two-day attack now stands at six, adding that the terrorists invaded a camp with Christian refugees, and forcibly moved them to Kadarko and Giza villages in the local government area of Keana. Some of them were seriously injured, and some were said to be receiving treatment at hospitals.

(Omitted)

Nigeria ranks sixth on Open Doors' 2024 World Watch List of countries that persecute Christians. The number of people killed for their faith in this country from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023 was 4,118, and there were 3,300 cases of Christian kidnapping. There were 750 attacks on churches, hospitals, schools, cemeteries, and other Christian buildings.

Local Christian leaders said the Fulani herdsmen's attacks on Christian communities in central Nigeria were motivated by a desire to forcibly occupy the Christians’ lands and force Islam on them as desertification made it difficult to maintain their groups.

Source: Christianity Today

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. (Philippians 4:2-3)

Today, during Passion Week, when we meditate on the cross of the Lord Jesus, we hear the news that six Christians in Nigeria have died due to persecution.

We desire that the global church will pray with one heart and one voice for the Lord's help over our brothers and sisters in Nigeria who are working hard for the gospel.

Please pour abundant comfort and grace unto the Nigerian church that are enduring constant persecution and suffering just because of their belief in Jesus Christ.

Please help them to remember the love of Jesus, the Lamb who first bore the cross for them, and help the Nigerian church to have a united heart willing to follow the path of the cross.

Let the Nigerian church only strive for the gospel until the end of their lives, believing that the Lord has already written their names in the book of life.

Through the Nigerian church that have engraved the cross of Jesus Christ on themselves, may Africa and all nations see the amazing cross of Jesus, and may the work of the Holy Spirit begin that will lead them to the cross and gain eternal life!