By: Patrick Wintour Exclusive: Investigation by group of prominent human rights lawyers also criticises Syria and Iraq Displaced Yazidis in May at a camp in the north of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Photograph: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images Turkey should face charges in front of the international court of justice for being complicit in acts of genocide against the Yazidi people, while Syria and Iraq failed in their duty to prevent the killings, an investigation endorsed by British human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy has said. The groundbreaking report, compiled by a group of prominent human rights lawyers, is seeking to highlight the binding responsibility states have to prevent genocide on their territories, even if they are carried out by a third party such as Islamic State (IS). The lawyers, grouped under the title of the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC), said there was accountability under international law for states to prevent the crime of genocide under the Genocide Convention. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, chair of the YJC, described the genocide of the Yazidi people as “madness heaped on evil”. “Mechanisms in place could have saved the Yazidis from what is now part of their past, and part of their past partial destruction,” he said. It is widely accepted that genocide was attempted against the Yazidis, a religious minority, from 2013 in Iraq and Syria. The report, which followed a three-year inquiry that investigated the conduct of 13 countries, concluded three of them failed in their duty to take reasonable steps to prevent the genocide. In the case of Turkey, the committee went further by accusing its leaders of being complicit in the massacres, alleging it failed to police its borders to halt the free flow of IS fighters, including a significant number of Turkish nationals. Turkish officials have said the criticisms are baseless. The committee claimed that from April 2014, Turkish officials turned a blind eye to the sale, transfer and enslavement of Yazidi women and children, and helped train fighters affiliated with IS to fight its Kurdish enemies in Syria, so strengthening the perpetrators of the genocide. “Turkish officials knew and/or were wilfully blind to evidence that these individuals would use this training to commit prohibited acts against the Yazidis,” the report said. The report noted similar allegations have been made against some Gulf states, including Qatar, but insufficient evidence was produced. The 278-page report acknowledged that by June 2014, Iraq had called on the UN to recognise the atrocities committed by IS, but accused the Iraqi government of not coordinating with Kurdish authorities or taking measures to evacuate the Yazidis to safety. Syria’s government, the report alleged, failed to prevent the transfer and detention of enslaved Yazidis on its territory. The Turkish ambassador to the UK, Ümit Yalçın, said the criticisms were baseless and unfair. He said Turkey “starting from the early years of the conflict in Syria played a key role in the protection of Syrian civilians and minorities, including Yazidis, in the region against the attacks and violations of terrorist groups. “Turkey not only opened its doors and became a safe heaven for millions of Syrians and Yazidis but also provided protection for the people of the region through three counter terrorism operations in Syria. Today Yazidis live peacefully in areas that are under the control of the legitimate Syrian opposition in north-western Syria. “Moreover, last year many Yazidi families that took refugee in north-western Syria tried to return to their homes in Syria’s north-east but [were] prevented from doing so by PKK/YPG [the initials of the Kurdish groups in Turkey and Syria].” Lady Kennedy, in her joint foreword with Lord Alton, said “an ocean of impunity exists in relation to the Yazidi genocide”, noting that IS as a non-state actor cannot be prosecuted under international law. Meanwhile, states had “failed to in their duty to address their responsibilities to prevent the genocide for a variety of inhumane reasons”. If they are not held accountable, she wrote, “then the promise of ‘never again’ rings hollow”. © 2022 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Link to Article: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jul/05/turkey-should-face-international-court-over-yazidi-genocide-report-says-helena-kennedy?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_b-gdnnews&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1657058341

By Manny Maung Charred houses in Mwe Tone village following an attack by alleged Myanmar soldiers in Pale township, Sagaing Region, Myanmar, February 1, 2022.© 2022 AP Photo Shocking footage has recently emerged on social media of brutal killings allegedly in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region where a United Nations investigator has documented apparent war crimes by the Myanmar military. The footage, recovered from a cell phone belonging to a Myanmar soldier and verified by media outlet Radio Free Asia (RFA), but not independently verified by Human Rights Watch, shows about 30 men captured after a Myanmar military raid in Mon Taing Pin village, Ayadaw township, on May 10, 2022. At least five of them later appear dead, their hands bound, shot from behind. RFA reported that a villager had found the phone after it had been dropped. In the footage, three soldiers discuss in Burmese the number of people they have killed. A sergeant, identified by the insignia on his uniform, brags about shooting and killing 26 people. Another soldier says he killed five people by slitting their throats. The images are further damning evidence of the brutal military operation underway in Sagaing Region. They reinforce a pattern of killings that Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups have documented that bear the hallmarks of the military’s atrocities. As international attention to Myanmar wanes, its soldiers appear to be more willing to record even the most horrific acts of violence against the civilian population. Military-linked Telegram accounts post images of brutality. There is no evidence whatsoever that military commanders are acting to stop such atrocities; they may be directly responsible for them. Since the February 2021 coup, Human Rights Watch and others have documented that the military and pro-military militias have summarily executed and forcibly disappeared civilians and razed villages during military operations. International efforts to hold the military junta accountable are falling short. Concerned governments should persistently press the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo and refer the country situation to the International Criminal Court. If Russia and China choose to veto it, they will have to explain to UN member states why they have chosen to side with a military implicated in numerous atrocity crimes. In the meantime, governments should use national and regional mechanisms to expand efforts to financially isolate the junta. Unified international efforts are needed or the post-coup reality for Myanmar’s people will remain one horror after another. © 2022 Human Rights Watch

Majority of Brits would support family coming out – but trans people don’t feel safe on the street By AMELIA HANSFORD Published by Pink News on 5 July, 2022 Revellers walk over a rainbow-coloured pedestrian crossing on Regent Street during the 2019 Pride parade in London, England, on July 6, 2019. (Photo by David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images) A new report from YouGov has revealed that a majority of British households are accepting of all LGBTQ+ people – but, more damningly for the UK, that trans people still don’t feel safe in the streets. The statistics were released by Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall on Tuesday (5 July) as part of two surveys for all British adults and those who are specifically LGBTQ+ identifying. According to YouGov, the general public is 79 per cent likely to support a family member coming out as lesbian, gay, or bi. Meanwhile, 63 per cent they would support a family member coming out as trans. It also found that 74 per cent of Britons support LGB people adopting a child and 67 per cent would support a surrogacy pregnancy, while numbers are around 10 per cent lower for trans and non-binary people. The statistics showed that, despite the disparity between LGB and trans identities, a majority of households support all LGBTQ+ identities forming families through adoption, surrogacy or IVF. Despite this, LGBTQ+ people still feel less safe in public than the general population, which Stonewall said demonstrates “the impact of hate crimes and harmful rhetoric“. Seventy-four per cent of cis LGB adults feel safe in the streets of the area they live, with 78 per cent of all Britons feeling the same way. Comparatively, only 57 per cent of trans people said they felt safe in their area. “This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march in the UK,” Stonewall said. “50 years on, we can take pride in a United Kingdom where the majority of the public are supportive of their LGBTQ+ neighbours, work colleagues, family and friends. “However, we can’t take progress for granted. Throughout the past 50 years, the LGBTQ+ community has withstood numerous smear campaigns from those who wish to push us back into hiding.” The statistics also looked into other sections of day-to-day life and how LGBTQ+ identities are affected by the current political and social climate. It also included sections on public attitudes, media portrayals, family formation, safety, workplace and mental health. According to data, the majority of LGBTQ+ people formed their opinion of their own community through personal experiences, at around 67 per cent, whereas Britons as a whole found it was through family and friends that they formed their opinions of the LGBTQ+ community, at 38 per cent. By far the lowest for both the general public and LGBTQ+ people were newspapers, which only helped 12 per cent of the general public and 14 per cent of LGBTQ+ people form their opinion on the queer community. “There’s still a long way to go to achieve equality in the workplace,” Stonewall said, pointing to the 64 per cent of LGBTQ+ respondents who agree that LGBTQ+ people face discrimination at work, with a further 70 per cent on their gender identity. This comes just a few days after the Trades Union Congress (TUC) released statistics saying that queer people are paid 16 per cent less on average, equating to around £6,703 less per year. The poll, which was also conducted by YouGov, surveyed around 1,000 HR managers and found that only 13 per cent were actively monitoring pay gaps, while 20 per cent plan to address the wage inequality. Finally, Stonewall’s thread showed that 58 per cent of LGBTQ+ respondents were negatively impacted by COVID-19, compared to the 45 per cent of general Britons. Fifty-one per cent of LGBTQ+ adults had also been diagnosed with a mental health condition over the last year. © 2021 PINKNEWS

A photo of journalist Imran Riaz Khan during his arrest near Islamabad on Tuesday. — Photo: Farrukh Habib Twitter video screengrab Journalist Imran Riaz Khan was arrested on Tuesday near the outskirts of Islamabad, according to his counsel Mian Ali Ashfaq. Talking to Dawn.com, he said Khan was heading to Islamabad when he was arrested in connection with a treason case registered against him in Attock. Ashfaq said his client was named in 17 treason cases across Punjab, adding that he was filing a contempt of court petition against the police. PTI Secretary General Asad Umar condemned the arrest. He said expression of opinions should be met with counterarguments instead of arrests. PTI Vice President Fawad Chaudhry strongly condemned the arrest and hoped that the courts would take action. PTI leader Ali Haider Zaidi also condemned the incident and said the nation stood with Khan. In a recent video on his Youtube channel, the journalist had directly addressed Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and alleged that he was threatened after asking questions from military sources about the country's current political and economic situation. Several cases have been lodged against senior journalists and anchors, including Khan, Sabir Shakir, Arshad Sharif, Sami Ibrahim and Moeed Pirzada, for allegedly spreading hate against army and state institutions. The registration of cases against the above, who are seen to favour the PTI, was condemned by PTI Chairman Imran Khan earlier today in a video address. In May, the Lahore High Court had accepted Khan's plea for protective bail after multiple sedition cases were registered against him. Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1698366/journalist-imran-riaz-khan-arrested-near-islamabad Copyright © 2022, Dawn

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 4, 2022 / 11:41 am Residents of predominantly Christian villages in north-central Nigeria that came under attack from Fulani bandits on motorcycles June 5 maintain that a government helicopter fired on the villages’ defenders, but authorities have denied the charge, saying the crew targeted the assailants. The fighting, which lasted for several hours, took place in a group of villages about 30 miles south of Kaduna City, the capital of Kaduna. The raid left 32 villagers dead and 29 others, chiefly women, kidnapped, according to media reports and security authorities. In its aftermath, authorities have sought to reassure residents that the government is on their side in the bloody conflict with Fulani bandits. “An air force helicopter (under operation whirl punch) dispatched to the area, intercepted the bandits at the last location (Ungwan Maikori) and engaged them as they retreated, before the arrival of ground troops to the general area,” Samuel Aruwan, the state commissioner for internal security, said in a June 7 statement posted on Facebook. But eyewitnesses and others who spoke to CNA say perhaps hundreds of villagers saw the helicopter fired on armed locals who were trying to ward off more than 200 invaders. “The whole village saw the helicopter firing at the residents,” said Jonathan Asake, the head of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) who coordinated a meeting of villagers two days after the attack. In addition, Rev. Denis Sani, head of the local Evangelical Church Winning All as well as an elder advisor to volunteer neighborhood watchmen, told the conflict reporter Masara Kim that no ground troops arrived to rescue residents in Makori, one of the villages that came under attack. Sani told CNA that the helicopter fired with a submachine gun toward him and his fellow civilian guards, forcing him and his assistant, Jonah Greece, to withdraw toward the forest to gain cover. “We pulled back to avoid getting killed, allowing the terrorists to enter the village,” Greece told CNA. “The attack started as we were ending our church services on Sunday around noon,” said Greece, a community medical practitioner in Maikori. Since the village had suffered a massacre by terrorists in March 2019 and an attack earlier this year, the able-bodied men formed a defensive perimeter around the approaches to Maikori. “There were no military or police in the village, but about 40 to 50 men gathered up their hunting rifles,” Greece explained. Sani called for the men of the village of Maikori to position themselves behind trees and tall grass. The attackers were mounted on 70 motorbikes, three fighters on each bike. Greece said the attackers first swarmed through the neighboring village of Dogon Noma, burning houses and firing at villagers fleeing into the forest. Then they mounted their bikes and headed into Maikori where Sani and the defenders ambushed them with their homemade hunting rifles and pump shotguns, Greece said. At approximately 1 p.m. the villagers noticed a helicopter variously described as white or “silver” hovering over Maikori and firing vertically down at the defenders, Greece said. Nigerian media have reported that the claim that the helicopter fired on village defenders has been debunked. Villagers, however, are standing by their account. To clear the air on disputed versions of the incident seven heads of state police agencies met with village leaders on June 20 in Kufana. “Aruwan said while the Government had not totally succeeded in its primary assignment, it was however doing its best to ensure that they had come also to clarify some lingering ‘misrepresentations’ being championed by some enemies of progress and of the government,” Stingo Usman, a Christian community leader in Maraban Kajuru who attended the meeting, told CNA. The service chiefs at the meeting asserted that “it was impossible that the army helicopter had fired on the residents,” Usman said. None of the service chiefs who spoke were present during the attack, he added. According to Stingo Usman, Ibrahim Usman, the village head of Dogon Noma, contradicted Aruwan’s account. The village head told the authorities at the meeting that “a helicopter arrived and the locals thought relief had come to them until they realized that they were being attacked by both the helicopter and the bandits,” Stingo Usman related to CNA in a text message. “The youth then had to run for their lives and from that point, the armed Fulani bandits got access to the village and burned the whole village down, and also killed two people there,” Stingo Usman wrote, recounting Ibrahim Usman’s statements at the meeting. The representative of Kajuru County in the Nigerian House of Representatives, Yakubu Umar Barde, has called for an investigation of possible complicity between the Nigerian military and the terrorists. In addition, calls for an internationally led forensic investigation of complicity between Muslim terrorists and rogue military units have come from Baroness Caroline Cox, a member of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, and Gregory Stanton, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer and the founder of Genocide Watch. Security officials drew criticism for failing to stop the blasphemy murder of college student Deborah Emmanuel on the campus of Shehu Shegari teachers’ college in Sokoto on May 12. There have been additional complaints lodged against the lax response by the military and police to other attacks blamed on radicalized Fulani Islamists, including a massacre Jan. 11 in Te’Egbe, in Plateau State, and on March 20 in Kagoro in southern Kaduna. The inactivity and in some cases complicity of the military in terrorist attacks in the past has been noted by the human rights watchdog, Amnesty International. "Amnesty International found evidence showing that security forces received information about impending attacks and in some cases, came in contact with attackers but did nothing to stop or prevent the attacks,” the organization said in a 2018 report. “Many attacks lasted for hours, in some cases days, even in communities where security forces were not far away,” the report said. (c) Catholic News Agency, 2022

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Hungary Country Report July 2022 Since Victor Orban and his Fidesz Party took power in 2010, Hungary has seen a marked increase in discrimination and persecution of minority groups, specifically Roma, Jews, and LGBTQ+ Hungarians. The Hungarian Constitutional Court has upheld laws restricting freedom of assembly and peaceful protests. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his party, Fidesz, have systematically enacted anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant, and antisemitic legislation. The Hungarian parliament passed a bill in July 2021 that bans discussions of homosexuality or gender reassignment in educational materials or programs for children under 18. This anti-LGBTQ+ law even links the LGBTQ+ community with pedophilia. Hungary also discriminates against its Jewish population. Although antisemitic violence has decreased, the government openly supports antisemitic public figures, and many Hungarian Jews do not feel safe practicing their religion publicly. Popular conspiracy theories accuse Jewish communities of developing and spreading the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has harassed Hungarian-Jewish billionaire George Soros using antisemitic stereotypes and hate speech. Soros was compared to Hitler and called the “Liberal Fuhrer” in a popular Hungarian newspaper op-ed. Hungary’s Roma population is the country’s largest ethnic minority. Romani suffer increasing discrimination and harassment. Romani face lower life expectancies, higher rates of poverty, higher rates of human trafficking, inadequate housing, and living conditions, and lower access to higher education compared with other Hungarians. Racist violence, ethnic profiling, and discrimination by the police are problems. Romani students are often segregated in Hungarian schools and are even placed in schools for the mentally disabled. Hungary’s democracy has faltered under Victor Orban. Freedom House’s 2022 Nations in Transit Report labeled Hungary as a ‘transitional or hybrid regime’. The ruling Fidesz party is effectively able to implement laws and bills without opposition. Fidesz exercises controlling influence over the media and advertising, restricting free speech. There are ongoing efforts to silence and monitor potential critics of the government. This year, a group of journalists, businessmen, politicians, and lawyers were targeted by secret surveillance with Pegasus spyware. Hungary’s stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been notably neutral, including its refusal to comply with NATO’s boycott of Russian oil and gas. Due to Orban’s antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Roma, and anti-immigrant policies, Genocide Watch considers Hungary to be at Stage 3: Discrimination, Stage 6: Polarization, and Stage 8: Persecution. Genocide Watch recommends: Hungary should revise its National Social Inclusion Strategy to better protect Roma citizens from discrimination, harassment, and segregation. Hungarian civil society groups should actively speak out against antisemitic stereotypes and hate speech and protest against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. The EU should initiate proceedings against Hungary for violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR). Download report

July 01, 2022 Body bags containing the remains of some of the 21 civilians killed by a Russian missile strike lie in front of a damaged residential building in the village of Serhiyivka on July 1. At least 21 people have been killed, including two children, in Russian missile attacks on a village near the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, authorities said, a day after Russian invading forces withdrew from a strategic Black Sea island. Video of the aftermath of the predawn attack on July 1 showed the charred remains of buildings in Serhiyivka, located about 50 kilometers southwest of Odesa. Ukrainian news reports said missiles struck a multistory apartment building and a recreational center. Ukrainian authorities linked the missile strikes to the withdrawal of Russian troops from Snake Island a day earlier. “A terrorist country is killing our people. In response to defeats on the battlefield, they fight civilians," Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Twitter. According to Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for Odesa's regional military administration, rescuers have so far found 21 dead as a result of the missile attack. Ukrainian emergency officials said earlier that two children were among the dead and said 38 people were injured, including three children. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted photos of the destruction on Twitter and appealed for weapons. "Terrorist state Russia continues its war against civilians with overnight missile strikes on Odesa region killing dozens, including children," he said. "I urge partners to provide Ukraine with modern missile defense systems as soon as possible. Help us save lives and put an end to this war." The withdrawal of Russian forces from Snake Island was expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odesa. The island sits along a busy shipping lane. The Kremlin portrayed the withdrawal as a “goodwill gesture.” Ukraine’s military claimed a barrage of its artillery and missiles forced the Russians to flee in two small speedboats. The exact number of withdrawing troops was not disclosed. Control of Snake Island, located about 40 kilometers from Ukraine’s coast near the Danube Delta, had enabled Russia to threaten the sea lanes leading to and from Odesa, Ukraine’s main port for shipping grain to the world. General Valery Zaluzhny, commander of Ukraine's armed forces, said on July 1 that Russian planes had dropped phosphorus bombs on the island. "The leadership of the armed forces of the Russian Federation does not even adhere to its own statements, which declare a `gesture of goodwill,''' Zaluzhny said on Telegram. He posted a video of explosions hitting the island on Facebook. The attacks on the civilian buildings in Serhiyivka came in the 19th of Russian President Vladimir Putin's large-scale invasion, with Russian forces otherwise focused on what Ukrainians call an "enormous" bombardment of the last major city holding out in the east, Lysychansk, and the shelling of civilian settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk region. It also follows an attack earlier this week on a crowded shopping mall in Kremenchuk, in central Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have described the mall attack as a "terrorist" act, while Moscow has denied responsibility. Ukrainian State Emergency Service on July 1 raised the number of confirmed dead in the attack to 19 and the number of injured to 64. Among the injured, 26 were hospitalized. The Prosecutor-General's Office reported that 36 people remain missing. The head of the military administration of the Luhansk region to the east, Serhiy Hayday, said Lysychansk "is constantly being shelled with large [gun] calibers" by the Russian forces attempting to encircle the strategic hilltop city -- a key battleground in Moscow's attempt to conquer Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbas. After weeks of fighting that killed hundreds of civilians and turned the city into rubble, Moscow took control of neighboring Syevyerodonetsk, and is now setting its sights on Lysychansk. The United States said on July 1 that a new package of military aid worth $820 million will include new surface-to-air missile systems and anti-artillery radar systems. "We are going to support Ukraine as long as it takes," U.S. President Joe Biden said on June 30 at the close of a NATO summit in Madrid. As part of the new package, the United States will purchase two systems known as NASAMS, a Norwegian-developed antiaircraft system. Zelenskiy thanked Biden for providing the NASAMS, which he said will "significantly strengthen our antiaircraft defense." In addition to the NASAMS, the package includes artillery ammunition and radar systems, he said in a video message late on July 1. According to Zelenskiy, Ukraine is actively negotiating for other new weapons from partners. "This is necessary for the Donbas, for the Kharkiv region, for the south of Ukraine. We are doing everything to break the advantage of the occupiers," he said. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty © 2022 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Funeral for victims of June 5 Ondo Catholic Church Massacre Intersociety International Report (Vol.2: 2022) Monday, 4th July 2022 Executive Summary: 2,543 Christians Killed By Jihadists In January -June 2022 No fewer than 2,543 Christians were killed by the Nigerian Islamic Jihadists propagating radical Islamism. Also involved in the ‘egregious and industrial scale’ massacre of Christians in the country are members of the country’s security forces especially personnel and officers of the Nigerian Military drafted in Eastern Region part of the country particularly its Igbo-Trado-Judeo-Christian areas. The culpability of the security forces follows grave partisanship displayed in their operational modes and sectional composition of their command and control structures. The deployed security forces have thrown professionalism into the wind and engaged in gravely selective and witch-hunting operation and incessancy of indiscriminate killing of defenseless civilian Christians; killed not on the grounds of violent perpetration of heinous crimes in written laws of the country, but on the grounds of their ethnicity and religion. This is to the extent that in the past six months of this 2022, no fewer than 300 defenseless civilians of Igbo Southeast extraction were gravely shot and killed and at least 50 others abducted and permanently disappeared from custody till date. On 28th and 29th June 2022, for instance, several dozens of defenseless citizens (independently estimated at 100) were targeted and shot dead by military personnel in Ogbaru part of Anambra State in Southeast Nigeria; under the guise of “looking for Unknown Gunmen”. Consequently, it is therefore most likely correct to say that no fewer than 2,543 defenseless Christians have been killed in the past six months by the country’s Jihadists and their partners in crime within the country’s security forces. The massacre had taken place between January and March 2022 during which no fewer than 915 defenseless Christians were killed and April to June 2022 during which not less 1,628 more Christians were killed. The breakdown shows that the military and other security forces accounted for 300 deaths and 50 permanent disappearances while the country’s Jihadists accounted for 2,193 others. Among the dead were 140 abducted citizens, representing 10% of the total number of abducted Christians in the past six months estimated at 1,401. Added to total number of the slain Christians were 100 deaths representing the “dark figures of crime” or those killed but not statistically captured or recorded. In the whole, Boko Haram/ISWA accounted for death of about 200 Christians mostly killed in Christian and religiously mixed areas of Borno, Kebbi, Adamawa and Niger States. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen took responsibility for not less than 1400 deaths while Jihadist Fulani Bandits accounted for the remaining 600. Dozens of churches were also targeted and attacked and destroyed or burned down by the Jihadists in the said past six months of 2022. It must be remembered or recalled that International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) had in its ‘Special Int’l Report, Vol.1: 2022)’ of 5th April 2022 found that ‘no fewer than 5,191 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2021 and about 3,800 others abducted’. Our report also corroborated the Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List (WWL) on global killing of Christians’ index, which disclosed that “4,650 Christians were killed in Nigeria between Nov 2020 and Oct 2021, higher than 3,530 deaths recorded in the previous year (Oct 2019-Nov 2020) and 2500 abducted as against 900 abducted in the previous year”. 14 Christians Killed Daily And 420 Monthly As Kaduna, Niger, Plateau And Benue Top The List The 2,543 Christian killings or deaths also indicated that fourteen were killed daily and 420 monthly while State by State breakdown indicates that Kaduna State is the worst hit with not less than 323 Christian deaths recorded in the past six months of 2022, followed by Christian parts of Niger State including Shiroro, Munya and Rafi Local Government Areas with 264 (213 deaths in Jan-March and 51 deaths in April-June) deaths. The third worst hit State is Plateau with 229, followed by Benue with 192, Taraba 176 (130 deaths in Jan-March and 46 in April-June), Borno 120, Ondo 112, Enugu 60, Abia 55, Kebbi 45, Ogun 40, Edo 30, Yobe 29, Delta 25, Bauchi 15 and Nasarawa and Kogi 15 deaths each; totaling 1,775 Christian deaths. The figures above did not include the following: 100 ‘dark figures of crime’, 140 Christian deaths arising that mandatorily occurred in the Jihadist custodies, 350 deaths arising from military’s ethno-religious killings and disappearances and 200 others arising from killings by Boko Haram/ISWA; bringing their grand total to no fewer than 2,543 Christian deaths in the past six months or January to June 2022. Total Of 48,187 Christians Murdered Since July 2009 Boko Haram Uprising In Nigeria In the past thirteen years and three months or July 2009 (Boko Haram Uprising) to June 2022, the Christian death tolls had risen to no fewer than 48,187, from 43,000 as at August 2021. The chief perpetrators or butchers have remained the country’s Jihadists comprising Nigerian Government aided and protected indigenous and foreign Fulani Herdsmen (fully transformed into Nigeria’s version of the Sudanese Janjaweed in 2016), the Fulani Bandits (formed for rural Fulani uprising against indigenous Hausas in Maradum, Zamfara in 2011, but religiously and economically radicalized by extremist state actors and others in 2017) and other indigenous and non-indigenous jihadist pastoralists including state actor and non-state actor procured mercenaries. Apart from ‘industrially’ targeting defenseless Christians and their sacred places of worship or learning for wanton attacks or destruction, the Jihadists excluding Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen also target and kill members of the Hausa Muslim population in Muslim-dominated Northern States of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi and North, Kaduna, etc. 50 Priests Abducted In Six Months On Religo-Economic Grounds, Eight Killed In Captivity By compiling available statistics and unrecorded others, Nigeria has in the past six months or January to June 2022 witnessed the abduction of not less than 50 Christian priests, and out of this number, at least 30 were abducted on the ground of their faith including at least ten Catholic Priests. Among the abducted and freed victims is an Anglican Bishop. Priests have also joined the rank of those being abducted for non-jihadist ransom. In Anambra State, for instance, not less than 10 Catholic Priests were abducted or their automobiles snatched at gunpoint between January and June 2022 by various kidnapping squads and their abductions were hardly made public. No fewer than eight Christian Priests including at least three Catholic Priests (Fathers Bako, Borogo and Odia, etc) were killed in captivity by Jihadists in the past six months. See the supporting statistics below for more details. 1,401 Christians Abducted In Jan-June 2022 And 140 Or 10% Died In Captivity A total of not less than 700 Christians were abducted between January and March 2022 and between April and June 2022, not less than 701 others were abducted, totaling 1,401, out of which, not less than 140 or 10% died in the custody of their jihadist abductors. In the Southeast Triangle of Isuochi in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State where Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen have seized and laid siege despite heavy military and police roadblock presence, dozens of abducted Igbo Christian travelers have died in the captivity of their Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen abductors. According to a freed victim of Jihadist Herdsmen abduction who was abducted on 15th June 2022 and freed on 17th June after payment of N20m ransom, “sites where they were dumped to decompose have been covered by swarm of flies and stenches were oozing out hazardously”. The Jihadist Captivity slain victims have died as a result of torture or gunshot injuries or captivity killings arising from their inability to pay ransom or submit themselves for rape/other sexual assaults (if ladies) and for professing Christianity and other religious or ethnic identities such as being ‘Igbo Christians’. Our Sources/Intellectual References Contained In 10-Page Supporting Data Below Intersociety has been monitoring, documenting and exposing the killing of Christians and burning or destruction of their sacred places of worship as well as persecution of minority Moslems in Nigeria or any part thereof since 2010. Intersociety is totally against religious intolerance and all forms of ethnic bigotry and intra and inter-denominational fanaticism including attacks against benevolent members of traditional religion and destruction of their symbols of worship such as sanctuaries and artifacts. We are firm believers in religious freedom and freedom of peaceful and tolerant worship as guaranteed by the Nigeria’s Fundamental Human Rights provisions and others contained in its signed and ratified or domesticated regional and international Rights Treaty Laws including the African Rights Charter of 1981 and UN Civil and Political Rights Covenant of 1976. Therefore, contained in the 10-Page supporting data below are gathered and verified sources/intellectual references. The backup statistics include contain names of slain and wounded Christians facing persecution in Northern Nigeria. In the backup statistics are also numerous verifiable local and international media reports, opinions, research and investigative findings and so on; and they include the Morning Star News (leading investigators of anti-Christian persecution in Nigeria) and the Security Tracker Weekly of the US Council on Foreign Relations. End Of Executive Summary Thanking US Senators And Others We at the Int’l Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), Nigeria’s research and investigative Rights and Democracy organization since 2008 are deeply joyous, grateful and thankful to the respected US Senators. We are particularly appreciative of their ongoing international pressure and campaign in aid of persecuted Christians and minority others in Nigeria or any part thereof. These historic international moves of theirs have also elevated them to enviable status of “Amicus Curiae for persecuted Christians and Minority others in Nigeria”, geared towards ending chronic and pandemic violence against Christians in the country. Particularly gladdening and gratifying was the respected US Senators’ 29th June 2022 powerful letter to US Secretary of State, the Honorable Antony Blinken. The joint letter, signed by Senators Josh Hawley, Mike Braun, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio and James Inhofe was on account of the US Government’s indifference over the horrific acts of violence against defenseless Christians and their sacred places of worship or learning by the country’s congregated and aggregated Islamic Jihadists; and failure, inability and unwillingness of the present central Government of Nigeria to effectively checkmate or put a stop to same. We also thank in a special way the similar efforts by the Heroine of the UK House of Lords, Madam Caroline Cox and Lord David Alton of Liverpool and concerned others as well as dogged efforts of the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington DC, the Nigerian Americans in Washington, DC, the US Congress Nigeria Caucus and the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU). We prayerfully urge them to remain resilient and unyielding until the armadas of butchery against Nigerian Christians are brought to end and the perpetrators punitively sanctioned locally and internationally. Signed: For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) International Principal Officers Emeka Umeagbalasi (Criminologist/M.Sc.), Board Chairman Chinwe Umeche Esquire, LLB, BL, Head, Democracy and Good Governance Obianuju Joy Igboeli Esquire, LLB, BL, Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law Chidimma Udegbunam Esquire, LLB, BL, Head, Campaign and Publicity Ndidiamaka Bernard Esquire, LLB, BL, LLM, Head, Int’l Justice and Human Rights Samuel Kamanyaoku, HND, Head, Field Data Collection and Documentation Contacts: Phone/WhatsApp: +2348174090052, Email: info@intersociety-ng.org , Website: https://intersociety-ng.org Intellectual References And Supporting Others Nigerian Security Tracker Weekly Of The Council On Foreign Relations: April-June 2022 Late March 2022: March 26: 30 abducted by Fulani Bandits in Munya, Niger State, 27th March, 15 killed by Fulani Jihadists in Christian areas of Giwa in Kaduna State, 28th March, at least eight train travelers killed and over 20 others abducted in Kachia, Kaduna State, March 28, Jihadist Herdsmen killed one in Ughelli, Delta State and five killed in Bassa, Plateau State, March 28, Jihadist Herdsmen killed four in Guma, Benue State and six killed in Zango-Kataf, Kaduna, 29th March, 23 Christians killed and scores of others abducted in Giwa, Kaduna State, 29th March, Jihadist Herdsmen killed three in Guma, Benue State, 29th March, over 15 travelers abducted in Chikun, Kaduna State, 30th March, 10 abducted in Zaria and two in Kajuru, Kaduna State, 31st March, three killed and 20 abducted in Chikun, Kaduna State, 31st March, Jihadist Herdsmen killed two in Bassa, Plateau State and abducted seven students in Okigwe, Imo State. April 2022: April 2: Jihadist Herdsmen killed 12 in Bassa, Plateau State, April 3, Jihadist Herdsmen killed three in Bassa, Plateau State, April 6, two killed in Barkin Ladi, Plateau State, April 7, three killed and 20 abducted in Christian held areas of Shiroro, Niger State, April 7, Jihadist Herdsmen killed five in Ovia North-East, Edo State and three killed by Fulani Bandits in Munya, Niger State, April 9, two Christians abducted in Mangu, Plateau State, April 10, two Hausa Christians killed by Fulani Bandits in Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State, April 10, Jihadist Herdsmen massacred 106 Christians and abducted over 70 others in Kanam, Plateau State, April 10, Jihadist Herdsmen killed 15 in Chikun, Kaduna State, April 11, Jihadist Herdsmen killed 15 in Tarka LGA and nine others in Guma and one in Logo; all in Benue State, April 12, Jihadist Herdsmen killed three and abducted two in Isi-Uzo, Enugu State, April 16, two killed in Kaura, Kaduna State, April 17, four killed and four abducted in Kajuru, Kaduna State, April 19, two killed in Bassa, Plateau State, April 20, Boko Haram killed at least 17 Christians in Damaturu, Yobe State, April 20, twenty abducted by Jihadist Fulani Bandits on the road in Mopa-Muno, Kogi State, April 21, Jihadist Herdsmen killed eight in Kwande and 14 in Gwer West; all in Benue State, April 23, Jihadist Herdsmen abducted ten in Ogbaru, Anambra State, April 23, two Christians killed at a wedding in Bauchi State, April 23, three killed in Offa, Kwara State, April 25, Jihadist Herdsmen/Fulani Bandits killed 25 in Kauru, Kaduna State, April 28, Jihadist Herdsmen killed two in Logo, Benue State and abducted six in Kachia, Kaduna State and on April 30, five Christians killed and 20 abducted in Wase, Plateau State. May 2022: May 3: Boko Haram Jihadists killed nine Christians in Chibok, Borno State, May 5, Jihadist Herdsmen killed eight in Bassa, Plateau State, May 9, three Christians killed in Tafawa-Belewa, Bauchi State, May 10, thirty-four (34) killed in Takum, Taraba State and three killed in Ningi, Bauchi State, May 13, Jihadist Herdsmen killed one in Isi-Uzo, Enugu State, May 14, one Christian killed and 20 abducted in Chikun, Kaduna State, May 16, four students abducted in Jema’a and 30 in Kachia, Kaduna State, May 17, suspected Jihadist Herdsmen killed four in Ikwo, Ebonyi State, May 17, Jihadist Herdsmen killed one and abducted over ten in Isiukwuato, Abia State, May 18, Muslim fanatics killed over four Igbo traders at Jabi Timber’s Market, FCT, Abuja, May 18, seven abducted by Fulani Jihadist Bandits in Abaji, FCT, Abuja, May 20, Jihadist Herdsmen killed five in Guma, Benue State, May 21, Boko Haram killed sixty mainly Christians in Kala Balge, Borno State, May 28, one killed and two abducted in Lafia, Nasarawa State, May 29, Jihadist Herdsmen abducted three in Umunneochi, Abia State, May 31, Fulani Bandits and jihadist others abducted 37 in Birnin-Gwari, Kaduna State. June 2022: June 2: five abducted in Gassol, Taraba State, June 3, fourteen killed in Bassa, Kogi State, June 4, fourteen abducted in Kajuru, Kaduna State, June 4, two killed and over 10 abducted in Ekiti, Kwara State, June 4, a Christian was killed in Okehi, Kogi State for blasphemy, June 4, Jihadist Herdsmen killed one in Jos South, Plateau State, June 4, Jihadist Herdsmen abducted two in Umuahia North, Abia State, June 5, as much as 82 Catholic Church worshippers including scores of Igbo natives massacred by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen during a Sunday service in Owo, Ondo State, June 5, 32 Christians killed in Kajuru, Kaduna State by combined forces of Jihadist Herdsmen and jihadist security forces, June 6, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen killed two in Logo, Benue State, June 6, Boko Haram abducted ten in Konduga and ISWA abducted 23 in Dikwa, Borno State; among them were Christians, June 8, Jihadist Herdsmen killed eight in Ondo West, Ondo State, June 9, nine killed in Bassa, Kogi State, June 11, fifteen abducted by Jihadist Herdsmen in Isu, Imo State, June 12, three abducted in Ajiba, Oyo State,June 12, thirty-seven Christians killed in Okpokwu, Benue State, June 13, two abducted from a Church in Ewekoro, Ogun State, June 13, Jihadist Herdsmen killed two in Isi-Uzo, Enugu State, June 14, Jihadist Herdsmen killed two in Igbo-Eze, Enugu State, June 14, Jihadist Herdsmen killed five in Isi-Uzo, Enugu State, June 14, Fulani Jihadists massacred 30 mainly Christians in Danko-Wasegu, Kebbi State, June 15, three killed and 30 abducted in predominant Christian part of Rafi in Niger State. On June 16, Jihadist Herdsmen killed two in Ogbodibia, Benue State, June 16, four killed in Alkaleri, Bauchi State, June 16, Boko Haram/ISWA killed eleven at IDP camp in Bama, Borno State, June 17, three Humanitarian Aid Workers abducted by ISWA in Munguno, Borno State, June 18, five abducted by Bandits in Akwanga, Nasarawa State, June 18, two abducted in Toro, Bauchi State, June 19, four Christians killed and 44 others abducted in Kajuru, Kaduna State, June 19, thirteen abducted in Akoko-Edo, Edo State, June 19, Jihadist Herdsmen abducted six in Udi, Enugu State, (June 19, a university teacher/physician who was abducted on June 15 and released on 17th June revealed how his Jihadist Fulani captors that took him inside Isuochi Forest threatened to kill him, having abducted and killed over 50 other Igbo Christians between January and June 2022 for professing to be Christians or refusing to pay huge ransoms demanded or refusing to be raped or sexually degraded and he said he was taken near their dumping sites inside the Forest, covered by swam of flies and smokes of stench); June 20, Jihadist Herdsmen killed 16 in Guma, Benue State, June 21, seven abducted in Chikun, Kaduna State, June 21, seven abducted in Lokoja, Kogi State, June 21, Jihadist Herdsmen killed three in Sapele, Delta State, June 22, Fulani Bandits abducted 22 in Abaji, FCT, Abuja. Morning Star News And Other Sources Herdsmen and Others Kill 18 Christians in Northern Nigeria Assailants burn down 92 homes. ABUJA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Fulani herdsmen and others on Tuesday night (April 26) attacked four villages in Kaduna state, Nigeria, killing 18 Christians and burning down 92 houses, sources said. The killings took place in three of the four villages. In Kauru County, the assailants killed 11 Christians in Ungwan Rimi village, six in Ungwan Magaji village and one at Kitakum village, said Abel Habila Adamu, president of the Chawai Development Association (CDA), in a press statement. “Despite the ongoing peace talks between the Fulani herdsmen and the Christians of host communities in Tsam Chiefdom by relevant stakeholders, international organizations and NGOs, yet peace seems to be elusive as there are continuous attacks on the peace-loving people of Ungwan, Rimi Ungwan Magaji and Kitagum communities, all in Kamaru ward of Tsam Chiefdom, Kauru LGA, Kaduna state,” Adamu said. He said the attacks injured seven Chritians and destroyed 92 homes. “The Chawai (Tsam) Development Association condemns in strong terms the resurfacing of unabated attacks on our land and people by bandits and herdsmen,” Adamu said. Killed in Ungwan Rimi were Daniel Sunday, 47; Andrew John, 27; Ariko Adi, 28; Jummai Thomas, 87; Monday Gani, 29; John Amah, 52; David Amah, 63; Malu David, 31; Moris Kure, 53; Ravo Agah, 61; and Sati Ringo, 39, according to Adamu. He identified the slain at Ungwan Magaji village as Danladi Adaraso, 56; Monday Yerima, 50; Tupac John, 40; Malu Vulah, 45; Lydia Danladi, 30; and Mary Danladi, 27. In Kitakum village, 102-year-old Garba Akur was killed. Three wounded Christians were identified in the attack on Ungwan Magaji: Ayuba Adamu, Bawa Joshua and Asabe Danladi. Adamu identified one person injured, Audu Tulu, at a fourth village, Ungwan Makera. In Ungwan Rimi, 52 houses were destroyed, while residents of Kitakum lost 32 homes and those in Ungwan Makera lost eight, he said. Dozens of motorcycles were burned, and two were stolen, he said. Area residents lamented the bloodshed in text messages to Morning Star News. “Herdsmen have again carried out raids on four of our villages in Chawai Chiefdom of Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna state,” said Barnabas Barazan. “It is unfortunate that these attacks have continued without end. Arise, oh Lord, and let your enemies be scattered!” Micah Magaji wrote, “We are again saddened with the invasion of four villages of Chawai in Kauru Local Government Area. God of vengeance, we look up to thee.” “Attacks on our Christian communities carried out by armed herdsmen and terrorists have continued to affect us,” wrote Yohanna Chawai. “We pray God to comfort us all at this moment of grief.” Nigeria led the world in Christians killed for their faith last year (Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021) at 4,650, up from 3,530 the previous year, according to Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List report. The number of kidnapped Christians was also highest in Nigeria, at more than 2,500, up from 990 the previous year, according to the WWL report. Nigeria trailed only China in the number of churches attacked, with 470 cases, according to the report. In the 2022 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Nigeria jumped to seventh place, its highest ranking ever, from No. 9 the previous year. Numbering in the millions across Nigeria and the Sahel, predominantly Muslim Fulani comprise hundreds of clans of many different lineages who do not hold extremist views, but some Fulani do adhere to radical Islamist ideology, the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom or Belief (APPG) noted in a recent report. “They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity.” Other Fulani jihadists, terrorists kill 74 Nigerian Christians ABUJA, Nigeria, 24th May 2022 — Muslim Fulani herdsmen and their terrorist collaborators continue to kill Christians and have expanded into another area of Nigeria. The following are some recent attacks reported by Morning Star News. · Eight Christians were killed May 5 in the Kwall District of Plateau state by Fulani and possible Islamic State members. In Miango District in April at least 21 Christians were killed. · Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) raided Kautikari town in Borno state May 3, killing eight Christians. · Taraba state experienced its first ISWAP attack April 19, showing that the group is expanding. Six Christians were killed in Isware by an explosive device thrown into their gathering place. Another attack in Isware occurred April 22 in which 11 were wounded. · Islamic extremists murdered 12 Christians in Yobe state’s Geidam April 20 by slitting their throats. On April 24 an explosive device killed a Christian in Gashua. · Fulani and collaborators attacked four villages April 26 in Kaduna state, killing 18 Christians. Attack on Church in Southwest Nigeria KILLS 82 WorshipPers 30th June 2022: Number of slain independently put at 82. ABUJA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – 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. The June 5 bomb and gun attack at the end of Mass at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, in normally quiet Ondo state, shocked the city as it did the country. A visiting speaker from western Nigeria’s Oyo state, the Most Rev. Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Oyo, said at a June 17 funeral service in Owo that “over 40 of our departed people” were killed, while ABC News cited an unnamed source as saying there were 82 bodies from the attack taken to a local morgues. A lawmaker representing Owo Constituency I, Oluwole Ogunmolasuyi, who visited the site shortly after the attack, reportedly said at least 70 people were killed and injured, while the state government said 40 were killed and 87 wounded. A priest at the church, the Rev. Andrew Abayomi, told Morning Star News that as worship service was coming to an end, the terrorists threw explosive devices on the church building and shot at worshippers. A spokesman for the Nigeria Police Force’s command in Ondo state said that some of the gunmen were disguised as members of the congregation and opened fire inside the church building, while terrorists outside fired at worshippers as they fled. Police reportedly recovered three undetonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from the scene along with fragments of detonated IEDs and pellets of spent AK-47 ammunition, according to the spokesman. While Interior officials in Nigeria reportedly said the attack showed marks of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), local people suspected weaponized Fulani herdsmen. Bishop Badejo said at the funeral service that few of the tragic killings that have overtaken Nigeria in recent years could compare with “the brutality and gruesomeness of the event on that Pentecost Sunday.” “No doubt we all gather today in deep sorrow and mourning for this funeral Mass of over 40 of our departed people who were brutally murdered, mindlessly massacred,” Badejo said. “As our deceased brothers and sisters lay here, there are almost 75 others who sustained different degrees of injuries in the same incident.” The dead ranged in age from 85-year-old, Bridget Ozulumba to children like 2-year-old Chukwuemeka Emmanuel Njoku and Mathilda Ogungbade, 3, he said. “None of the dead or injured did anything wrong except that they came to worship God at the foot of the cross and altar on that day,” Badejo said. “There, sudden death was inflicted upon them and deep sorrow upon their dear ones left behind.” He appealed to those present to refuse to be crushed but have hope because of their faith in Christ. “Today, difficult though it is, let us choose more to give thanks to God that He gave our departed brethren the life, the faith and the privilege of belonging to Him and of returning to Him, even in this incomprehensible manner,” he said. “I would still understand it if someone here would say to me, ‘Preacher man, come on, you don’t feel the anger I feel, you don’t know the pain I feel’… Yet we still find consolation.” Badejo cited King David agonizing in tears in the Psalms even as he maintained hope, and Martha in the Gospel of John maintaining hope in the resurrection. “So, my dear people, the summit and summary of all our sentiments today is our surrender to Jesus Christ on Whom we keep our gaze as the Author and finisher of our faith. We see Him at the Stations of the Cross. We see him in His persecution, suffering and murder.” To surrender to Christ is not to succumb to evil, he said. “On this kind of occasion it is opportune to ask: ‘How many more must die before the senseless killings in Nigeria stop?’ In these coffins a part of Nigeria lies dead too,” he said. “Our Christian faith, strong as it is, is thoroughly tested when we remember that the massacre in Owo is not an isolated case in our country, and that we see little on the ground to indicate that it might be the last.” He cited a report from SB Morgen Intelligence, a Nigeria-based research firm, stating that nearly 900 Nigerians were killed in violent attacks in the first quarter of this year alone. “Even as I speak, many priests and citizens of Nigeria are in the hands of kidnappers,” Badejo said. “How many more must die? Jesus Christ came and died so that we might live…So we are not walking corpses merely waiting to be killed, nor are we suicide cases. So we are compelled to ask Nigeria, our leaders: ‘Are you still our leaders? Are we at war? How many more must die?’” Armed Terrorists Kill Christians near Kaduna City, Nigeria April 6, 2022 Three slain on March 31, two kidnapped ABUJA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Armed terrorists on Thursday night (March 31) raided a predominantly Christian suburb of Kaduna city in northern Nigeria, killing three Christians and wounding three others, sources said. The gunmen attacked Angwan Bulus village, in the Sabon Tasha area of Chikun County, late at night, said the Rev. Ibrahim Simon, an area pastor. “Please pray along with us, as we at Angwan Bulus community in Sabon Tasha, Kaduna state, are right now being attacked by terrorists,” Pastor Simon said in a text message to Morning Star News. “The community is under serious siege from gunmen. At the moment, three Christians are confirmed dead, and three others have been injured.” Among those killed was an employee of a Christian ministry, the Kaduna Rescue Mission, another source said. The attack began at about 9 p.m., according to another area resident, Suzan Audu Makama. “Only God can rescue us now,” Makama said. “We at Angwan Bulus in Sabo Tasha need your prayers.” Ezekiel Gabriel of the city of Kaduna said he was visiting a relative at Angwan Bulus when the attack began. “I was at Angwan Bulus around 9 p.m. this night, and the next thing I heard was multiple gunshots,” Gabriel said in a text message to Morning Star News. “Terrorists attacked this Christian community. They shot some people, and people were running; children were running, and I had to run for my life too.” Gabriel managed to transport some victims out of the area in his car to a safe part of Kaduna city, he said. “Christians are really suffering here in Kaduna,” Gabriel said. Two Kidnapped The previous day, March 30, suspected Fulani herdsmen kidnapped two Christians working at their farms in Angwan Barde village, another suburb of the city of Kaduna. Theo Danjuma of Angwan Barde said the herdsmen phoned the families of the two Christian farmers and demanded ransom payments for their release. “Christian residents of Angwan Barde are mostly peasant farmers – these herdsmen bandits demand ransoms in millions of naira,” Danjuma said in a text message to Morning Star News. “Where will the families of these kidnapped Christian farmers get such amounts being demanded?” Angwan Barde village is located along the Kaduna-Abuja highway where kidnappings by herdsmen and terrorists have gained notoriety. Nine Christians Killed Armed herdsmen and terrorists attacked the villages of Kpemu, Gwegna, Koliko and Chivin in Kagarko County, Kaduna state on March 28, killing three Christians, residents said. Kagarko Council official Godwin Magaji said three Christians were killed and six others injured in the attacks, and that the wounded were receiving hospital treatment. Also March 28, herdsmen in collaboration with terrorists attacked Ungwan Bulus, a predominantly Christian community in Zangon Kataf County, Kaduna state, killing six Christians, said area resident Jonathan Bobai. Confirming that six Christians were killed, Ungwan Bulus community leader Samuel Achie said terrorists invaded the village at about 9:30 p.m. “The attacks by these terrorists have gone unabated,” Achie said. “The government is yet to come up with any concrete steps to bring the ugly incidences to an end.” The Rev. John Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), said Christians mourning the deaths of their loved ones has become commonplace and accepted by Nigeria authorities.“A nation where mourning has become an everyday ordeal cannot be productive, because a heart that mourns becomes fragile, unable to think, plan or organize well,” Hayab said. “We call on all Christians and people of goodwill in Kaduna state to continue to pray for peace to reign and persecution of Christians to end.” Christian Association of Nigeria calls for more security after lethal attack on train World Council of Churches, 14th April 2022 After an armed gang in northern Nigeria killed eight people, injured two dozen more, and abducted some of the 400 passengers on a train, the Christian Association of Nigeria repeated demands for greater government security. Rev. John Joseph Hayab, a Baptist pastor and president of the Kaduna State branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria, the biggest ecumenical group in Nigeria, said the call was made after the 28 March attack. The latest attack adds to persistent and increasing attacks on Christians from Islamist organizations or other groups working with them. Poor security has triggered mass internal displacement in Nigeria's north, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country. Groups such as Boko Haram, Fulani herders, and Islamic State West Africa Province operate in different parts of the northern region and often target minority Christians in the north, according to numerous reports. According to a local priest, Boko Haram militants conduct nighttime raids on villages in neighboring Cameroon and kill all the men. Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, and of its population of some 225 million, just around 50 percent are believed to be Muslims, mostly living in the north, and the majority of the other half are Christians, who tend to live in the southern parts. Internally displaced: The UN Refugee Agency says almost 2.2 million people from Nigeria's northeast are internally displaced and more than 983,700 in the northwest, while more than 330,000 Nigerians are refugees in Cameroon. The UN said that 93 percent of those who fled the northeast did so due to insurgency, six percent due to communal clashes, and one percent displaced by natural disasters. Release International, a group that works for persecuted Christians, reported on 25 March an earlier attack by Islamist militants that left more than 30 people dead, citing an earlier statement from the Christian Association of Nigeria. The Kaduna chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria said then that Christians were grieving "the continued killings, kidnappings, banditry and the unimaginable evil going on in our state unabated, without any substantial action by the government and security forces." Kidnapping for ransom has increased, with three priests taken in March. Terrorists killed at least 536 Nigerians in the first three months of 2022, with many of the attacks taking place in the country's north. "The violence against Christians in Nigeria has intensified in recent months. In spite of this, the Nigeria faithful remain steadfast in faith and need our prayers and compassion," said Aid to the Church in Need. Nigeria's Morning Star News reported that Fulani herders killed around 50 believers in attacks on ten predominantly Christian communities in Giwa county, Kaduna, on 24 March. Rev. Felix Zakari, a Roman Catholic priest, was among around 100 people taken captive. Locals reported that a church building, houses, and stores had been burned down and animals killed. Resident Nuhu Musa told Morning Star News by text message: "They didn't allow even the dead bodies to be buried, as they shot at mourners and those who returned to the villages to conduct funerals for those killed." AT LEAST EIGHT SLAIN IN ATTACK ON CHRISTIAN AREA OF NIGERIA: MORNING STAR NEWS | MAY 9TH, 2022 10:27 AM ABUJA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – At least eight people were killed in an attack earlier this month (May 3) by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists on a predominantly Christian village in northeastern Nigerian State of Borno, sources said. In the latest of several attacks by the Islamic extremists on Christian communities in Chibok County, Borno state, ISWAP militants stormed Kautikari town after 6 p.m., not only shooting people dead but looting properties and destroying many homes, area residents said.“Kautikari community is right now being attacked by ISWAP (Boko Haram) terrorists,” area resident Musa Nkeki told Morning Star News in a text message. “Your prayer is urgently needed for God’s intervention.”Resident Yohanna Daniel also texted Morning Star News, saying, “We need security intervention please, before it is too late.”The two residents said hundreds of residents had fled the area. Daniel identified the slain as Yanta Ali, Mallum Dzakwa, Dawi Pogu, Lado Manu, Joshu’a Sanda, Tabji Mutah, Albert Tabji and Ngwaksa Aboku. Local sources told the Daily Trust newspaper that eight bodies had been recovered, that many people were still missing and that the assailants had burned down a military base. Second attack in the Chibok area in less than a month: Nkeki told Morning Star News that this was the second attack in the Chibok area in less than a month, as ISWAP terrorists on April 18 attacked Yimirmugza village, abducting six Christians. “They shot sporadically on anyone in sight, thereby forcing all Christian residents to flee for their lives,” Nkeki said. “At the end of the attack, the terrorists killed a Christian by the name of Godwin Isa’ac and abducted six girls.” He identified the six kidnapped girls as Christiana Fali, Rhoda Fali, Hannatu Fali and Lydia Fali, all from one family, and Asabe Sunday and Rifkatu John. The terrorists also carted away livestock, food and valuable items, he said. On Feb. 25, suspected ISWAP terrorists killed three Christians in an attack on Kautikari and destroyed a church building. Kautikari was also attacked in mid-January, when 24 Christian women and children were captured and taken into captivity, and a worship auditorium of a local congregation was also damaged. Three persons were said to have been killed and many houses and church buildings burned. ISWAP attacked another Chibok town, Piyemi, on Jan. 20, with 19 people, mostly girls, abducted and a vigilante leader beheaded. Chibok leaders have reported that their communities have been attacked more than 72 times since the 2014 kidnapping of 276 public high school girls in the predominantly Christian area. After eight years in which 57 girls escaped on their own and others were released, 110 of the girls remain in captivity, according a report released in late January by the Chibok Area Development Association. Clergyman Kidnapped, Christians Killed in Northern Nigeria Eight Christians slain in Bauchi State. May 30, 2022 By Our Nigeria Correspondent ABUJA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – 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. The kidnapping early on Wednesday (May 25) of priests Stephen Ojapah and Oliver Okpara, along with two parishioners from the rectory of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Gidan Maikambo, Kafur County, followed the abduction of an evangelical pastor three weeks earlier in the state, residents told Morning Star News. Gunmen broke into the rectory after midnight, said the Rev. Chris Omotosho, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, in a statement.“The parish priest and his assistant, the Rev. Oliver Okpara, and two boys in the house were kidnapped,” Omotosho said. “No information as to their whereabouts. Fr. Ojapah is a priest of my congregation, the Missionary Society of St. Paul, and a very close friend of mine. Please keep him, his assistant and the two boys kidnapped in your prayers.” On May 8, the Rev. Matthew Moses of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) was kidnapped, said James Saleh, coordinator of Evangelical Missionary Society of the ECWA. “Another missionary, Matthew Moses, serving in Katsina state, northwest Nigeria, was kidnapped on Sunday, 8 May,” Saleh said in a statement. “Kindly pray for divine intervention for his release along with others.”Gabriel Michael, a resident of Katsina state, told Morning Star News that persecution has become commonplace for Christians in the state.“Katsina state is currently under the firm grip of Islamic terrorists,” Michael said in a text message. “They invade churches and Christian communities at will, and nothing has been done by the authorities to end these invasions.” Muslim terrorists have taken over the areas of Kafur, Zango, Kurfi, Baure, Bindawa, Danja, Ingawa and Kankara, he said. “Any Christian kidnapped in these areas can never be rescued,” he said. “Even local government areas like Katsina, Daura, Malumfashi, Dutsin-Ma, and Jibiya which many consider to be relatively safer, are dangerous zone for Christians in Katsina sate. Villages in these areas are Islamic terrorist enclaves.” On May 19, a priest with the Anglican Church in Katsina, the Ven. Yohanna Haruna, was kidnapped from his church by armed terrorists, according to the general secretary of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). In Zaria, Kaduna state, a priest kidnapped in March was freed on May 3. The Rev. Felix Zakari Fidson of St. Ann’s Catholic Church had been taken away at gunpoint on March 24 from Zangon Tama. Christian Killings in Bauchi State In northeastern Nigeria’s Bauchi state, three Christians were killed in an attack in Tafawa Balewa County on May 9, sources said. Ahmed Wakil, a spokesman for the Bauchi State Police Command, identified the victims as Samaila Bello, Kefas Sarki (Cephas Tserki, according to an area resident) and Paulina Alhamdu. “We received a distress call on May 9 at about 21:30 hours that some armed with AK-47 rifles stormed the Num area of Sara village,” Wakil said. “They opened fire on members of the community causing the death of three persons, while two others, Gode Bulus and Zakka Mayo [Zaka Matthew, according an area resident] were injured.” Area resident Joel Muntsira said Muslim terrorists invaded the village, killed three Christians and wounded five others: Maryamu Yakubu, Naomi Taos, Yelwa Bala, Gode Bulus and Zaka Matthew. Esther Damion, a resident of Tafawa Balewa, told Morning Star News that it appears the international community has forgotten Christians facing persecution in northern Nigeria. “The world has completely forgotten about terrorist attacks and invasions of Christian communities in Nigeria,” she said in a text message. “Christians die here as a result of terrorist attacks, but the world is silent over these atrocities against us.” Ga’Allah Daniel, president of the Zaar Youth Development Association, is from the area. “We experienced a series of attacks on our people during farming season last year, and now that this year’s farming season is setting in, we have started witnessing it again with this present attack,” Daniel said. In the city of Bauchi, five Christians were killed in related attacks in April, area residents said. A group of Muslims on April 22 invaded the home of a Christian couple holding a “send-forth” prayer meeting for their daughter, who was to be wedded the next day, and killed two Christians in attendance, said area resident Emmanuel Habakkuk. “A Muslim mob invaded the prayer program, attacked Christians at the event, and shot to death two of them,” Habakkuk said.“The incident took place in the home of a Christian, Mr. Ezra Yari, the father of the bride.” Five days after the attack on the home in the Gudun Hausawa area of the city, Muslims on April 27 attacked Christians at the funeral of the two slain Christians, killing three more Christians, he said. “Three more Christians were killed during the funeral of the two Christians killed five days earlier at a send-forth prayer program,” Habakkuk said. “This is aside from houses of Christians in the area that were destroyed and set ablaze.” The Rev. Abraham Damina Dimeus, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Bauchi State Chapter, confirmed the attacks in a press statement. “Let’s be prayerful and leave vengeance to God,” Dimeus said. “I know that we’re facing pressure from terrorists and Muslim mobs who have been attacking our communities, but please remain calm as we have presented our plight to the government and are asking authorities to act towards protecting us.” State police spokesman Wakil confirmed the two attacks. He identified the two Christians slain on April 22 as Gift Felix, 17, and Shalon Memdir, 18, both of Gudun Hausawa. KIDNAPPED PRIEST IN KADUNA, NIGERIA KILLED BY CAPTORS Religion Today Blog Morning Star News Nigeria Correspondent, Crosswalk.com ABUJA, Nigeria, May 12, 2022 (Morning Star News) – 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. The Rev. Joseph Aketeh Bako, parish priest of St. John’s Catholic Church, was kidnapped at about 1 a.m. on March 8 from his home at the church premises in the Kudenda area of Kaduna city, Kaduna state, in a raid that killed a security guard. The Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Kaduna, Christian Okewu Emmanuel, released a statement on Wednesday (May 11) stating that the captors killed Bako, and that information about his death was withheld until investigations could verify it. Bako was 48. “It is with a heavy heart, but with total submission to the will of God that we announce the death of Rev. Fr. Joseph Aketeh Bako, which sad event took place in the hands of his abductors between 18-20 April 2022,” Emmanuel said. The statement did not mention the identity of the captors, but Fulani herdsmen working along other Muslim terrorists were suspected. The security guard killed in the kidnapping was identified only as Luka, and the assailants killed another man in the predominantly Christian area as they shot sporadically while fleeing, area residents said. A woman and two children were also killed. Insecurity: Gunmen Abduct Catholic Priest In Kogi (Channels TV, June 6, 2022) A Catholic Priest, Reverend Father Christopher Onotu has been kidnapped by yet-to-be-identified gunmen in Kogi State. The abduction took place on Saturday night at Onotu’s church in Obangede, Okehi Local Government Area.The abductors reportedly made their way into the Church’s vicarage at about 9pm on Saturday evening and burgled the window through which they entered the priest’s room and whisked him away. Onotu’s absence was not sensed till the following day when parishioners came to the church for the first morning mass were reportedly abducted along with Bako in the attack in Kaduna state’s South County. ‘148 communities attacked in 6 yrs, 200,000 persons displaced in Southern Kaduna’ News Band, June 22, 2022 (culled from Vanguard Newspaper) The Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) has alleged that within 6 years,148 communities were attacked in Southern Kaduna while 200,000 natives were displaced. SOKAPU, at a press conference said killings by terrorists in the region was outright ethnic cleansing of the people resident in the area. According to him, “we are calling on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) Foreign Missions, European Union, United Nations, among others, to beam their searchlight on the atrocities, crimes against humanities, ethnic cleansing being perpetrated against the people of Southern Kaduna.” “These horrendous attacks on Kaduna State, especially the southern flank, have become glaring, with both government and security agencies seeming incapable of reining in the activities of these vicious bandits.’ “From the ongoing, it is clear that the bandits/terrorists have taken over many villages and town and are closing in on the Kaduna city centre.” “SOKAPU believes that these bandits may soon take over the Kaduna metropolis, including the Kaduna State Government House if the government continues to show a lack of capacity or willingness to stop them.” “Mineral deposits and green areas for cattle rearing in the entire Middle Belt are responsible for killing in Southern Kaduna. We have concluded plans to take over our ancestral land because what is going on is ethnic cleansing in Southern Kaduna and the entire Middle Belt. Several communities have been attacked in Southern Kaduna at genocidal proportion “ “It is very clear that Kaduna State is under siege by a combination of killer Fulani herdsmen, kidnappers, bandits and other criminal groups who have continued to terrorize peaceful, vulnerable and defenseless Nigerians resident in the state.” “There is no single day that passes without an ugly incident of attacks and massacre in rural communities or mass abductions of people in both rural communities and suburbs of urban areas. These ceaseless attacks have continued to leave in their trail tales massacre, maiming, destruction of property and crops, raping of women and mass displacement of persons from their homelands.” “The spates of insecurity shredding Kaduna State recently hit the peak when on March 28, 2022, an Abuja-Kaduna bound train was bombed, less than 48 hours after the Kaduna Airport was attacked and an official of the airport killed.” “During the attack on the train, no less than eight passengers were murdered. The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is yet to account for the whereabouts of 165 passengers that were on the ill-fated trip. While mourning the attacks on the train and the airport, another group of bandits launched yet another deadly assault on a military base located in Pole Wire Village in Birnin Gwari LGA of Kaduna State, killing 12 soldiers and injuring 19 military personnel.”. “Just this week on Monday, April 25, 2022, heavily armed killer Fulani herdsmen in their large numbers riding on motorbikes invaded some communities in Kamaru ward, Chawai Chiefdom of Kauru Local Government Area where no fewer than 25 persons were murdered in cold blood.” “By 4:30 pm of that fateful Monday, the attackers commenced their assault on Ungwar Rimi community and continued to kill, maim and destroy the property of the community without help from the security forces. The attack on Ungwar Rimi lasted for over three hours.” “By the time the attack was over, 12 persons were murdered, and no fewer than 52 houses were burnt after the village was looted of foodstuffs and animals, among others.” “After three hours of the attack on Ungwar Rimi, the invaders proceeded to Ungwar Magaji; a community that has been attacked at least four times since 2014, where the rampaging herdsmen commenced yet another round of violence.” “When the killer herdsmen attacked Ungwan Makera, one Audu Tulu, a resident of the village was severely injured, while no fewer than eight houses were burnt, foodstuffs and valuables were looted by the attackers. Most pathetic is the killing of a 102-year old man, Pa Garba Akur, in Kitakum. He was shot as he tried to run, the heartless herdsmen hacked him down with their machetes and left his mutilated body in the pool of his blood.” “Also, 32 houses were reduced to rubbles and many displaced. These recent attacks in Kauru LGA is just one of the series of attacks that have been waged against Southern Kaduna communities since January this year.” “In January 2022, Kurmin Masara and surrounding communities were attacked where no less than 16 people were murdered and 38 houses razed down by these killer Fulani herdsmen. On February 2, 2022, Zamandabo was attacked, resulting in the death of one person and 15 houses destroyed.” “In Kajuru LGA communities, between January 4, 2022, and April 12, 2022; no less than 38 persons were killed across 40 communities, and about 200 abducted for ransom.” “Most of these communities are forced to cough out millions of naira without any intervention from the government.” “Worthy of note is the unacceptable kidnap incident of 22nd February 2022 when these armed bandits invaded Idon Hanya market in the heat of business and took away at gunpoint 22 persons, mostly women into the bush, like a herd of sheep. To date, no one has said anything about their fate.” “On March 16, 2022, in Agunu Dutse community, Kachia LGA, armed Fulani militia stormed the village around 12:30 am and kidnapped 46 people, mostly women and children. To date, their whereabouts are still unknown.” “On April 6, 2022, in Akilbu village of the same local government, another terror gang left eight persons, mostly women and children, dead, and abducted 28 persons. There were several other unreported murders and kidnappings across Kachia communities.” “On February 5, 2022, an attack was carried out against Maraban Kagoro-Gidan Waya Road where 11 people were killed and many homes destroyed. There was another attack on March 22, 2022, on four communities of Tsonje, Agban, Katanga and Kadarko, all within Kagoro Chiefdom in Kaura Local Government Area. No fewer than 34 were murdered and 35 homes razed down.” “Most of the villages in Chikun LGA have been sacked, with scores killed and hundreds kidnapped, while the villages destroyed. Thousands of these displaced people are living under dehumanising conditions in various IDP camps. The invaders have become so daring that they now invade Kaduna suburbs, a few kilometres to the Kaduna Government House.” “In Mararaban Rido, Chikun LGA, and a suburb of Kaduna city, no less than 12 kidnapping incidences have been reported between January and April 2022, with scores abducted whose whereabouts are still unknown. No fewer than seven lives have been snuffed out by these deadly bandits.” “In Ungwan Bulus and Ungwan Gimbiya, all in Chikun LGA, no fewer than 50 people were kidnapped and eight killed from January 2022 to April 27, 2022, by armed bandits. More troubling than ever, the Kaduna- Kachia route has become dangerous for motorists and travellers who are constantly being kidnapped for ransom,” he said. Owo Attack: US Religious Freedom Institute Accuses Nigerian Federal GOVERNMENT Of Shielding Fulani Herdsmen And Blaming ISWAP Reuben-Abati, July 1, 2022 Nigerian officials blamed the terror attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, on the Islamic State West Africa Province while avoiding references to networks of politically powerful herdsmen, Knoxville News Sentinel reports. According to a senior fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington DC, Stephen Rasche, Nigerian Christians no longer trust their own government or the leaders of the United States and the European Union. On the Owo massacre, Rasche said, “These types of murders are taking place weekly, almost daily, in Nigeria — murders of innocent Christians, being gunned down, slaughtered indiscriminately, throughout the north and, increasingly, into the central part of Nigeria and into the south.” On how the Nigerian Christians are reacting, he said many of them simply “throw up their hands,” because they no longer trust their own government or the leaders of the United States and the European Union. “They don’t look at us as being serious about any of these things,” he said. “They are completely disillusioned that the US government is going to have any kind of effective role to play. They’ve just given up that anybody in the West is going to come to their aid,” he added. [PUNCH] Nigeria Crisis Congressional Press Conference — Advocates demand international investigation into Helicopter attack on Southern Kaduna Christians, protest Benue and Ondo massacres at US Capitol News Express, 27th June 2022 On Thursday, June 24, 2022, Nigerian Americans in Washington, DC, joined the co-chairs of the US Congress Nigeria Caucus in a press conference calling attention to ongoing atrocities in Nigeria. On Thursday, June 24, 2022, Nigerian Americans in Washington, DC, joined the co-chairs of the US Congress Nigeria Caucus in a press conference calling attention to ongoing atrocities in Nigeria. Just like the epic failure of the procured 20 American academics who wrote to urge the US not to designate Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization for spurious and specious reasons, then and now all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t possibly put the glaring truth in denial again. Incidentally not a single Nigerian American was included amongst the 20 American anti-FTO academics who took the wrong side of history and terror, despite the significant number of Nigerian Americans in academia. CONTINUING CLERGY ABDUCTIONS Current facts also speak for themselves in contradiction of the DOS report. It is disheartening that, while we’re glad that two of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls have been found eight years after, fresh abductions are still occurring. Last week alone, an Anglican Bishop was abducted in Kwara state, a catholic priest in Plateau state, an ECWA pastor in Kaduna state and members of the Celestial church in central and southern Nigeria were abducted in the latest iteration of a month-long spree of weekly clergy abductions. That same week, a missionary pastor Ibrahim Tanda with Go international was murdered in Kebbi state. The combined effect of Boko Haram’s and the Fulani militia terrorism has maintained Nigeria as the most dangerous place for Christians in the world. BLOODY CHURCH MASSACRES On the same Pentecost day June 5th that over 40 (as much as 82) worshippers in St Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state were massacred, Fulani bandits aided by a Nigerian Airforce helicopter killed 32 and destroyed an ECWA church in Kajuru, Kaduna state, victims report. The following Sunday June 12, they also killed scores just before morning mass in Edumoga in Benue State, north-central Nigeria - a different conflict theater from the terror-plagued northeast. In one week alone, over 120 (160) innocent civilian Christians were slaughtered in North-West, North-Central and North-East Nigeria. This is genocide! Incidentally these atrocities occurred while the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom was visiting Nigeria but yet the US State Dept won’t listen to a U.S. government agency much less the blood of the martyrs. GOVERNMENT PERSECUTION Not to be outdone, the very day after churches were attacked by Fulani militia in Kaduna and Ondo, the government of Kaduna state also demolished a chapel construction site on the campus of Kaduna State University - the government again perpetrating similar terroristic acts on a place of worship. Sadly in the same pattern of impunity, witnesses say their phones were confiscated by the government so they couldn’t record the church site destruction by the state government, just as occurred when Borno state demolished a church and killed a pastor’s son last year. The Kaduna State government must be urged to promptly address this atrocity and the refusal to allow the rebuilding of Catholic and Protestant chapels at the ABU federal university destroyed 11 years ago by Muslim rioters in pro-Buhari post-election violence. AMERICAN AND WESTERN VICTIMS OF FULANI MILITIA Besides the overwhelming facts of anti-Christian animus both by state and non-state actors at all all levels, the state department’s sources come with baggage of their own. Mercy Corp itself lost one of its staff in Nigeria, British national Faye Mooney, to the Islamist Fulani kidnappers in an Easter attack in 2020 - the self-same ethno-religious syndicate that abducted Canadian and American businessmen in Kaduna before. Their international affiliates similarly abducted American missionary Walton from the country of Niger and hid him in Nigeria despite closed borders until his rescue by U.S. Seals in 2020. What did these British and American Christian aid workers have to do with farmer and herder conflict or global warming? It is hard to argue lack of religious animus when the Fulani militia attack, slash and burn villages in the midnight massacres chanting Allahu Akbar (God is great) in Arabic. It is unclear if the organizations mean that they asked the killers if they had religious motives and they said “no” or if they asked the dead victims if their murders were religiously motivated and they posthumously replied in the negative. poOther Sources:. “They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” the APPG reortpphttps://news.band/terrorists-demand-n100m-ransom-for-abducted-kaduna-worshippers/https://www.christiantoday.co.in/news/gunmen-abduct-2-priests-2-boys-from-catholic-church-in-nigeria-pray-for-their-safety-and-release.htmlhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2022/06/again-suspected-herdsmen-return-to-mgbuji-farm-in-enugu-kill-8-others-still-missing/amp/. “They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” t. “They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity,” . “They adopt a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province] and demonstrate a clear intent to target Christians and potent symbols of Christian identity” https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2022/06/attack-on-churches-35-pastors-abducted-killed-in-17-months/amp/ https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/307098/nigeria-is-the-most-christian-lives-hackers-in-the-world-in.html

By Hugh Williamson Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. © 2017 Reuters At least 18 people died and over 240 were injured during recent unrest in Uzbekistan’s autonomous region of Karakalpakstan, in the worst such violence in the Central Asian country for many years. Uzbek authorities’ handling of the aftermath of the unrest will be a crucial test of whether the government of president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has turned a page and truly intends to respect human rights and the rule of law. Protests started on 1 July in Nukus, the regional capital of Karakalpakstan, and other cities. They were in response to government plans to change the constitution of Uzbekistan and remove the right of the region to seek independence, should its citizens choose to do so in a referendum. Following the protests, President Mirziyoyev said the proposed changes would be withdrawn. The circumstances surrounding the violent clashes remain unclear, in part because Uzbek authorities have suspended internet connections in the region. In addition, there are reports that journalists covering the events have been detained and harassed. A state of emergency, including a curfew, has been imposed across Karakalpakstan region, which covers one-third of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has for decades been a highly authoritarian country with scant respect for human rights. When president Mirziyoyev came to power in 2016, he took some steps to improve human rights, releasing some political prisoners and ending the systematic use of forced labor in cotton harvesting. However, there remains no independent judiciary and torture by security forces remains widespread, with abuses by security forces rarely being effectively investigated. The unrest in Karakalpakstan arguably poses the biggest test yet for president Mirziyoyev, especially as Uzbekistan’s international partners will be watching closely. The European Union has called for an “open and independent investigation” into events in the region and for restraint to be shown by the authorities and others. Internet restrictions should be lifted immediately and harassment of reporters must stop. Any state of emergency should include clear justifications for the restriction of specific rights and be temporary in nature. Some rights, such as the ban of torture, cannot be restricted even in times of emergency. The initial response of authorities to focus on actions by protesters rather than also on those of security forces is worrying. But the government still has an opportunity to show it can break with its past and adopt an approach that respects human rights. © 2022 Human Rights Watch. All rights reserved.

Attacks on the press have increased 85% in the three years since president Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power Police officers guard the area where Antonio de la Cruz was killed in Ciudad Victoria. Photograph: Reuters 29 June 2022 Yet another Mexican reporter has been shot to death, bringing to 12 the number of journalists killed this year in the country, one of the world’s most dangerous for media workers. Antonio de la Cruz, 47, was shot on Wednesday as he was leaving his house with his 23-year-old daughter, who was seriously injured, according to state prosecutors and the newspaper that employed him. De la Cruz, 47, a reporter for the local newspaper Expreso for almost three decades, was shot at the door of his house in Ciudad Victoria, capital of the state of Tamaulipas on the US border. The region is mired in violence linked to organized crime. Expreso covers all kinds of news in the city, including security issues. De la Cruz reported on rural and social topics such as water shortages. He also covered the Movimiento Ciudadano political party and its local deputy, Gustavo Cárdenas Gutiérrez, who condemned the killing. De la Cruz was “very aware of the reality of Tamaulipas, very brave”, Miguel Domínguez, director of the newspaper, said in an interview with Milenio Televisión. “He never expressed any concern to us,” Domínguez said. Expreso has been targeted over the years. In 2012, one of the worst years of drug cartel violence, a car bomb exploded in front of the newspaper’s building. In 2018, a cooler with a human head inside was left at the newspaper, with a warning not to report on violence in the city. The governor of Tamaulipas, Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca, promised an investigation of the killing on Wednesday so that “this cowardly crime does not go unpunished”. The state prosecutor’s office said that the specialized unit for investigating crimes against freedom of expression had been informed. The federal prosecutor’s office said it was opening an investigation. Attacks on the press have surged 85% in the three years since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power in December 2018, with every single Mexican state witnessing such incidents for the first time in 2021. Seven journalists were killed in the whole of 2021, compared with 12 so far this year. © 2022 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Police Chiefs release guidance on the new anti-Traveller law - seen by the Travellers' Times First Published 28 June 2022 Picture: Stock image from Stow Fair (Natasha Quarmby) The National Police Chiefs Council has released a copy of their guidance on how police forces should enforce the new anti-Traveller law to the Travellers' Times. The new law, which criminalises trespass with or within vehicles with the intent to reside, can be enforced from today - Tuesday 28th June. Travellers on unauthorised camps falling foul of the new law could face prison, a £2.5k fine, and/or seizure of vehicles. The police guidance states: "When considering how to respond, police should consider the potential impact issuing a direction to leave, arresting a person or seizing a vehicle may have on the families involved and on the vulnerable, before taking an enforcement decision. On occasions other agencies may request police officers to accompany them to an incident to assist them for a lawful purpose. Such assistance is a matter for local discretion. Officers must take care to ensure that they do not become agents for the other parties, and on such occasions maintain neutrality from the other’s purpose, but to provide reassurance to all involved that the peace will be maintained." Adding that: "If vehicles are seized during incidents of this nature, officers must be aware that these are, in effect, people’s homes, and links to relevant local authorities should be established to ensure subsequent appropriate accommodation is provided. Incidents of this nature also have potential wider issues in respect of children and animals from a safeguarding perspective and forces should ensure they have local policies and procedures in place to deal properly with such circumstances." The police chiefs guidance also appears to allay concerns from lawyers supporting Travellers that the new criminal offence could be determined by land owners and instead the guidance firmly states that it is the police who ultimately decide whether a criminal offence is committed. "The word significant will be crucial in establishing if any criminal offence has been committed under this new legislation," states the police guidance. "Possible definitions for “significant” damage, disruption or distress are outlined in the statutory guidance which states that the police will be the party who determines if any “significant” damage, disruption or distress has been caused. The statutory guidance states: “If the police deem the harms to not be significant, then the offence under Section 60C would not apply.”" The government has yet to publish it's statutory guidance on the new anti-Traveller law. The TT has approached them for comment. The Police Chiefs Council guidance will be uploaded to their website later today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, our readers can see a copy of the police guidance in the download below. Exclusive to the Travellers' Times: https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/sites/default/files/paragraphs/downloads/2022-06/npcc-op-advice-trespassing-land-without-consentunauthorised-encampments2022.pdf Friends, Families and Travellers and Lawyers from Community Law Partnership will now be studying both the police and the yet to be published government guidance to determine what effect it may have on the nomadic way of life. In the meantime the FFT advice on what to do if the new law is used against you can be found here. UPDATE: The Government has just released its own statutory guidance which can be found here: Statutory Guidance for Police on Unauthorised Encampments (publishing.service.gov.uk) TT News © 2022 Travellers Times