Boko Haram kidnapped 10,000 boys, forced them to become child soldiers

8/15/16 – Mark Ellis at God Reports

The world was horrified when the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014. But less coverage has been given to the kidnapping of more than 10,000 boys over the last three years by the terror group and their brutal coercion tactics, forcing children to wage jihad.

The allegations are contained in a stunning investigative report by Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Shortly after the Chibok schoolgirls were seized, Boko Haram attacked six villages in the nearby mountains and rounded up children there, with little media coverage beyond the Nigerian press.

A few months later, the group captured the town of Damasak, and took 300 students, mostly boys, age 7 to 17. The militants imprisoned them in a school, witnesses told the WSJ. Their parents were held in separate rooms. For months, the children were forced to learn the Quran.

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Muslim refugees respond to the Gospel in Nigeria

8 June, 2016 – by Reagan Hoezee 

The situation may seem hopeless, but the good news is these people haven’t been abandoned.

“We have these two million people that are actually majority Muslim, but they’re consolidated into dozens of refugee camps all across that northern part of the country, and they’ve really become accessible for not only relief activity, but the body of Christ to come in there and impact them and just show them the love of Jesus in a very tangible way,” Greg Kelley, CEO of World Mission, says.

Kelley says despite the horrors of terrorism and the suffering it causes, a couple of positives have come from it. First, it has consolidated people and made them easier to reach with humanitarian aid. Second, it has opened people’s hearts to the Gospel.

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World’s Deadliest Terrorists Not In The Middle East

02-27-2016 – Christian Broadcasting Network

The world’s deadliest terrorist group is not in the Middle East. It’s in Nigeria, where Islamic regime Boko Haram and other violent groups killed more than 4,000 Christians in 2015.

According to a new report released by Open Doors, the death toll in the Northern part of the country has increased by 62 percent since 2014.

A decade of violence has nearly destroyed the church, killed thousands of believers, and driven away more than 1 million.

But for the first time, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is doing something about it by endorsing a commitment to revive the church nationwide.

CAN which is comprised of Protestant, indigenous evangelical, Pentecostal and Catholic churches who believe that there is still a large Christian presence in northern Nigeria that has the potential to “unite and stand strong.”

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Megachurch Trend Sees Global Growth: World’s Largest Congregations Are Now in Africa and Asia

July 25, 2015 – Beatrice Gitau – Christian Science Monitor

While the United States may have started the trend of megachuches, a new study shows that the future of super-size congregations lies abroad.

A survey by the Leadership Network, a Christian nonprofit organization, reveals that the world’s biggest churches are not in the United States, but in Asia and Africa.

For example, the world’s largest megachurch, Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea has an attendance of 480,000 people. India is now home to more Christians than at any time in its history.

According to a list compiled by the Leadership Network, attendance is high in western and eastern Africa, and at least 25 of Africa’s megachurches are in Nigeria. Lagos, the capital, ranks second in the world after Seoul, with a combined weekly attendance of 346,500 people.

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