NIGERIA: Trump threatens to attack jihadists; local pastor found dead
BBC and Sky deny Christians are being massacred
HEART newspaper has long reported on the years of horrific Islamist attacks on Christians in Nigeria, which some have labelled as genocide. Our reports have come from Christian charitable organisations with contacts on the ground, who often send horrific photos of corpses and burnt homes and crops. The slaughter is continuing, despite Nigerian government claims that they are dealing with the issue.
Photo – Islamists in Nigeria. Credit CBN News
While European nations have failed to support Nigeria’s Christians, US President Donald Trump has stepped in to demand action from Nigeria, and in November ordered the US military to prepare for attacks in Nigeria if the situation doesn’t improve. Trump wrote on social media that he might deploy troops to Nigeria or carry out airstrikes because “they’re killing record numbers of Christians in Nigeria… We’re not going to allow that to happen.”
Meanwhile, the BBC, already mired in controversy over its biased editing of video footage of Donald Trump, played down the violence against Christians and strongly implied Trump was wrong. In a report on 2 November by Joseph Winter, the BBC was quick to attack Trump’s decision, writing: “Groups monitoring violence say there is no evidence to suggest that Christians are being killed more than Muslims in Nigeria.”
The article extensively quoted Nigerian leaders denying that members of particular religions were being targeted in Nigeria, without quoting any of the Christian organisations supporting the suffering Church which say that Christians are being attacked by jihadists. Instead, the BBC mentioned a group called ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data) which claims that most of the victims have been Muslims, and referred to an unnamed “human rights group” which says “there is no evidence that Christians have been disproportionately targeted”.
“Nigeria remains among the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian” (Catholic Herald)
When reporting that Trump had declared Nigeria a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ because of the “existential threat” posed to its Christian population, the BBC article pointedly added that Trump said this “without providing any evidence”. Sky News also reported: “While Christians have been killed, most of the victims have been Muslims, analysts say” – without naming the analysts (Sky News, 3 November).
In contrast the Catholic Herald said: “Nigeria remains among the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. Open Doors lists the country in its 2025 World Watch report and continues to document systematic violence against churches and Christian communities, with analysts noting disproportionate targeting in the Middle Belt and north. Recent briefings from UK and US sources put the human toll in sobering figures: thousands killed in recent years, vast numbers displaced, and a long pattern of attacks on churches and Christian properties” (Catholic Herald, 10 November).
Premier Christian News reported that Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is in no doubt that Christians are suffering in huge numbers: “In October, the heads of CSW Nigeria, CSW UK, and CSW USA wrote to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging the redesignation of Nigeria as a CPC [Country of Particular Concern]. The Christian persecution charity leaders called for greater US pressure on Nigeria to protect vulnerable communities, hold perpetrators of religious violence to account, address discriminatory policies, and disrupt the financial networks enabling such abuses.”
CSW CEO Scot Bower confirmed that Christians are attacked for their faith: “Mass killings targeting the Christian community in central Nigeria have continued, along with discrimination and violations in Shari’a states.” Barnabas Aid, which has supported the suffering Church for decades, notes the crisis of displacement, loss of livelihoods and churches destroyed in what it terms part of the “anti‐Christian” wave in the West African country. Persecution watchdog Open Doors says that more Christians are abducted for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country, and it is also where the most Christians are raped or sexually harassed for their faith.
Should we believe the BBC?
Firstly, do not accept the BBC’s ‘framing’ of the situation in Nigeria as definitive, says journalist Mike Judge, writing in the Evangelical Times. “Recognise that the Christian witness in Nigeria is urgent, that millions of believers are under pressure, and your prayers and action matter. Secondly, support credible Christian organisations that are working directly with Nigerian believers. Thirdly, pray and act: write to your MP, raise the issue in your church, ask your mission agency what you can do to stand with our Nigerian brothers and sisters.”
NIGERIA: Kidnapped pastor killed despite ransom payment
Muslim Fulani kidnappers took the life of a pastor in western Nigeria ven though an agreed ransom was paid. Christian Daily International and Morning Star News report that the Rev James Audu Issa, a pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Ekati, Kwara state, was abducted from his home on 28 August. His captors demanded the huge sum of 100 million naira ($62,500 USD) for his release. Rev Issa’s family negotiated the price down to 5 million naira (US$ 3,125) and paid the kidnappers, but Issa was found dead on 2 October. (Photo – The Rev James Audu Issa, ECWA pastor in Ekati Kwara state Nigeria. Credit, ECWA church Ekati)
Local resident Peter Kolo said: “The pastor was killed by Fulani bandits… After collecting the 5 million naira, the bandits exhibited extreme cruelty by demanding an additional 45 million naira [$28,125]. Tragically, before any further negotiation could take place, Rev James Audu Issa was killed.”
The UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief wrote in a 2020 report that most Fulani are not extremists but some are radical Islamists, who “adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity”.
Andrew Halloway is a British freelance editor, writer and publishing consultant. He is also editor of Good News—a national monthly evangelistic newspaper (www.goodnews-paper.org.uk). Andrew has 18 years’ experience as an editor and publishing manager in the Christian publishing world, and holds a first class honours degree in Humanities. He has long had an interest in the creation/evolution debate, and is the contributing editor of ‘The Delusion of Evolution’, a magazine-style evangelistic booklet that has sold over 23,000 copies in the UK (available from www.newlife.co.uk).