Nigeria

Nearly a month after an attack on a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria, the number killed and the identity of the assailants remain unclear, though the church held a funeral service for “over 40” victims.

A 15-year-old Christian girl recently testified in a Pakistani court that she was kidnapped and raped by the Muslim man accused of abducting her and forcibly converting and marrying her.

According to sources, terrorists launched a gun and bomb attack at the end of a Catholic Mass in southwest Nigeria on Sunday (June 5), killing an estimated 70 worshippers.

Abductions of Christian church leaders continued in northern Nigeria with the kidnapping of two Roman Catholic priests last week and two other clergymen earlier this month in Katsina state, sources said.

According to sources, Muslim youths looking for a Christian woman accused of blaspheming the prophet of Islam set homes and shops ablaze on Friday (May 20) in northeast Nigeria.

Rioters upset over the arrest of two Muslims in connection with the killing of a Christian college student in Sokoto, Nigeria attacked three church buildings and looted and damaged Christian-owned shops on Saturday (May 14), sources said.

A Christian student stoned to death at a college in northwest Nigeria on Thursday (May 12) was falsely accused of blaspheming the prophet of Islam because she had refused to date a Muslim, sources said.

A Roman Catholic priest kidnapped in early March in the city of Kaduna, in northern Nigeria, was killed around April 18-20, according to church officials.

Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria killed eight Christians in Bassa county, Plateau state on Thursday (May 5), after slaughtering at least 21 others in another area of the county in April, sources said.

At least eight people were killed in an attack on Tuesday evening (May 3) by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists on a predominantly Christian village in northeastern Nigeria, sources said.