The situation in Middle-Belt Nigeria — and particularly in Jos, where most of our staff live and work — has become critical. We need you to pray with us, urgently.
What is happening
On Palm Sunday, armed Fulani militia on motorcycles attacked Angwan Rukuba, a central location where young people in Jos gather to relax. Taken by surprise, hundreds were seriously injured, and at least thirty have died.
FFICM Nigeria National Director Peter Wash describes this as part of a deliberate and chilling shift in strategy. Because it is the youth who have been most effective at organizing alarm systems and civilian defense efforts to protect villages on the outskirts of Jos, there are concerning signs that the youth are now being systematically hunted. The goal appears to be to eliminate the only people standing between the militia and defenseless villages.
The targeting has turned personal and surgical. Peter recounted how a young man central to defense efforts was stabbed near his own home and died in his mother’s arms. Another man was struck down while riding his bicycle. There are credible reports that Islamist militia groups are gathering intelligence on who the civilian defense organizers are and conducting targeted killings.
Credible warnings have been issued of major coordinated attacks planned throughout Easter week, with the worst expected on Easter Sunday — striking not only Jos, but vulnerable communities across the Middle-Belt states, the region between Nigeria’s largely Christian South and largely Muslim North.
Retaliatory Violence
Tragically, the fear and loss have now given rise to retaliatory violence among Christians in Jos. In some deeply heartbreaking incidents, mobs of Christian youth have attacked buses traveling toward Muslim-majority cities, killing passengers on the assumption that they were Muslims. This is not only a moral catastrophe — it means our staff are now at risk from all sides.
FFICM’s new staff members working in Muslim Background Believer ministry, N. and B., dress and present as Northern Nigerian. The Director fears they may be targeted by their own Christian neighbors simply for how they look. Our children’s writer, Y., lives in a village specifically named as a target by Fulani militia. Trainings in the north have been suspended because staff traveling by bus toward northern destinations risk being attacked by Christian vigilantes. Today, staff at our central office had to evacuate amid the sound of gunfire.
Please pray with us
Pray for protection for our staff, their families, and their villages. Pray that the plot to eliminate the defenders of defenseless communities will be foiled. Pray that the vigilante violence will be stopped before more innocent lives — Muslim and Christian alike — are lost. And pray for lasting peace in Middle-Belt Nigeria.
Oh God, we pray for our staff — that their families and villages would be preserved, in Jesus’ mighty name.
God who is our help and comfort, be near.
Let your angels and your presence surround our dear brothers and sisters, preserving the innocent from all harm, and the angry from the temptation to do great evil in your name.
God, have mercy. Shield them. Surround them with your favor and love — frustrate the plans of the wicked. Let those who dig a pit fall into it.
Demonstrate your power over death in this terrible moment by putting out your hand and declaring, “Thus far, but no farther,” to the waters of unrest.
Let the children rest in peace, and may their children also rest without fear — for you, O God, are their hope and defender.
Amen.
Dara Searcy-Gardner
Vice President| Firm Foundation in Christ Ministries