2,000 New Neighbors, but No Mother

ACP partners from Nigeria report the following incidents in recent months: On July 20th, in Chakfem and Manja, more than 700 adults and 860 children were displaced. On August 28th, in Chisu-Bungha, over 320 families were forced to flee. Heipang-Barkin Ladi LGA on October 15th: 270 families lost relatives, homes, and crops. ACP is using the window of media attention to publicly highlight the suffering of our fellow Christians in Nigeria. Take the family of Kefas, for example.

Unimaginable violence

Until a few weeks ago, they lived in a hot and dusty hut on their own farm. Every year, they planted vegetables that could be stored to feed themselves until the next harvest. But reports from neighboring villages disrupted their idyllic country life. There were increasing reports of intruders using unimaginable violence against the Christian inhabitants of this region. Houses were looted and burned down, farmers were attacked and abused, people were abducted or killed, and in some cases almost entire villages were wiped out.

Kefas, his wife, and their five children remained on guard after the warning signs, because danger could lurk behind every hedge and every rock. All the precautions were in vain. Terrorists attacked their home and killed his wife and four-month-old baby. With great effort, the father managed to lead his children to a safe place far away from home. Since then, the family has been living in cramped conditions with more than 2,000 other refugees, but without their baby and mother.

Calculated scarcity

“Terrorists are preventing the sowing of crops,” explains our local partner, Pastor Dapar. “These disruptions are part of a strategy to drive families into hunger and thus into flight.” Once the villagers are gone, the Islamist invaders occupy or destroy the abandoned farms. A return is no longer possible. Formerly self-sufficient, they become dependent on support from ACP and other aid organizations.