Five residents, including a pastor from our Nigerian partner church EYN, were killed in an attack by suspected members of the terrorist militia Boko Haram on a village in north-eastern Nigeria. We are shocked by this sad news and assure the relatives and the EYN of our solidarity.
The attack took place in Borno, Nigeria's north-easternmost state. According to a report in the Nigerian newspaper The Guardian a group of gunmen attacked the village of Tarfa on motorcycles, displacing dozens of residents and setting fire to many houses - including the church - and vehicles.
The attackers fired repeatedly and killed five residents. Among them was a pastor from our partner church EYN, who had apparently lived in Tarfa for over ten years.
Dismay and solidarity
Mission 21 is shocked by the renewed violence by armed terrorists. We assure the families of those killed, our partner church EYN and all those affected in this community of our solidarity.
Since 2009, acts of violence by Islamist groups such as Boko Haram have been destroying villages and fields and attacking Christians and Muslims who do not share the militia's extremist ideology. To date, several thousand people have fallen victim to this violence, thousands have been kidnapped and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
Mission 21 supports the commitment of our partner church EYN and other partner organizations to provide humanitarian aid to those affected. We are also working together on projects to promote peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims and to build bridges of understanding and trust across cultural and religious boundaries.
