It was a day filled with terror and violence for Nigerian Christians on Sunday, June 10, as six people were killed and dozens more injured after gunmen opened fire at a church in northeast Nigeria, while a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a second church in central Nigeria.
The two attacks are just the latest in an alarming trend of growing persecution and violence against Christians in Nigeria, which has come mostly at the hands of Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist organization. The group, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege,” has been responsible for a long series of attacks on Christian individuals and churches throughout the country, in a deadly campaign that has resulted in the destruction of more than 30 churches and the deaths of over 4,000 Christians over the past several years. Although many churches now receive additional military and police protection, it has done little to curb the rise in sectarian violence.
One of the deadliest and most recent church bombing attacks occurred on Easter Sunday, where more than 41 people were killed after a car bomb detonated across from the All Nations Christian Assembly church in Kaduna.
Please continue to pray for the safety of the persecuted church in Nigeria, and that stability will soon come to this distressed nation.