by Morningstar News Nigeria Correspondent
Muslim extremists had widowed Faith Kore Usman, a 29-year-old mother of five children, once before; however, Fulani herdsmen killed her second husband this New Year’s Eve in Nigeria.
As 34-year-old Kore Usman and other Christians were praising God in a field near their church building in Maihakorin Gold village, near Bokkos in central Nigeria’s Plateau state on Dec. 31, ethnic Fulani gunmen arrived and shot at the congregation. Besides killing Usman, the assault also killed a 41-year-old mother of six children; as well as killing many children. “I have placed my faith in God and am waiting on Him to comfort me and keep me and these five children,” Usman’s widow told Morning Star News.
She said she and her second husband had been married for nine years. “My first husband, Davou Philip, was killed by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Jol Village in Riyom Local Government Area in 2002,” she said. “I had only a son with him. However, God brought me and Kore Usman together, and we got married. God has blessed us with four children. I thought my burden had been lifted as a widow, and now, again my second husband has been killed by Muslim gunmen.”
Eyewitnesses said that as the Christians were praising God for his faithfulness in 2013, about five Muslim Fulani gunmen stormed the Christian community at about 9 p.m., shooting at the Christians gathered on the field near their worship auditorium. The husband of the slain Naomi Tejan, 47-year-old Luka Tejan, also expressed his faith in God to Morning Star News.
“We see these killings of Christians as evil acts aimed at truncating the spread of the gospel in this country,” he said. “The devil has been using these Fulanis to kill Christians. The good thing is that we have hope that in spite of the pains, the suffering and the tears, we shall overcome in Jesus’ name.”
Of the couple’s six children, one is 25 and two are 20-year-old twins. The others are ages 12, 7 and 3.
Usman’s widow called on the gunmen to repent of their unprovoked killing of Christians. The 14-year-old girl killed was Nandi Jamok, according to the Rev. Danlami Yatu, pastor of COCIN congregation in Maihakorin Gold village, 43 miles (69 kilometers) south of Jos. Twelve other Christians were wounded, he said,
identifying them as Marium Random, 35; Tyamol Maram, 14; Uvwat James, 15; Shagul
James, 32; Rita James, 8; Yibal Philemon, 8; Mashat Geofrey, 10; Macif Mabul, 17; Alex Yunana, 41; Emmanuel Ishaku, 30; Malo Marium, 50; and Victor Barnabas. “Myself and other members of the elder board of my church were holding a meeting in the church auditorium while our parishioners were outside the church building, on the field, singing and dancing in praise worship, thanking God for his blessings on our lives throughout the year, when suddenly gunmen we believe are Muslim Fulani herdsmen shot at our members and killed the victims,” Yatu said.
It was the fourth attack on the community in the two-plus years that he has served as pastor, he added.
“During the first attack in 2011, the Muslim attackers came here and attacked homes, but they were repelled
by security agents,” he said. “So also, another attack was carried out against us in 2012. A member of my church, Alex Yunana, was injured, and our church secretary too, Sunday Mabas, was attacked in his home, but he escaped unhurt, miraculously.”
In the third incident, the pastor’s home and that of another church member, Joel Mafyil, were attacked, he said. “Spirited efforts by our members in repelling the attackers saved us,” Yatu said.
The wounded Christians in the New Year’s Eve attack were being treated in the Plateau Specialist Hospital in Jos and the Barkin Ladi General Hospital, he said. Hosea Haruna, assistant church secretary for the local congregation, and Jemimah Isaac, a leader of the Women’s Fellowship in the church, told Morning Star News that the 500-member church’s daily Bible study programs and fellowship activities have ceased due to the attack. The church began 22 years ago.
Haruna and Isaac appealed to the Nigerian government to take measures to end the terrorist attacks not only on their community but against all Christians in northern Nigeria.–Morningstar News
