Source: www.persecution.org
Date: April 5, 2021
Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – “It has been established that the kidnapping operations (by bandits) are substantially funding Boko Haram activities in the North East.” Stated Kaduna state governor Nasir El Rufai while speaking to Channels TV on Sunday.
“These are insurgents, they are terrorists; they are fighting the sovereignty of Nigeria and we must treat them as such.”
Boko Haram established a pattern of kidnapping school children for ransom in 2014, when the group abducted 276 mostly Christian girls from a school in Chibok. Over 100 of those girls are still missing today. 2021 has already seen several large-scale kidnappings which were originally thought to have been carried out by loosely organized bandits rather than Boko Haram.
El Rufai’s recent statements confirm suspicions that the kidnappings are aiding Boko Harams mission to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
“The bulk of the money is going into terrorist financing; there is a branch of ISWAP called Ansar-Ur that is congregating in the forest in Birnin Gwari, led by a man and their objectives are very similar to Boko Haram, except that they are not against western education,” continued El Rufai.
“Boko Haram has no way of getting any money and some of them have slipped and joined the ranks of the bandits, and together they are doing this to raise a large amount of money”.
Please join us in praying for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, for the Lord to strengthen the Nigerian church and heal His persecuted children of their trauma. Please also pray for the world to recognize the scale of the suffering that believers are having to endure in Nigeria, for the end of violent extremism, and for the repentance of those who persecute the church.