{"id":4471,"date":"2015-09-18T13:45:29","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T18:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=4471"},"modified":"2015-09-18T13:45:29","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T18:45:29","slug":"what-persecution-feels-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2015\/09\/18\/what-persecution-feels-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What Persecution Feels Like"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Written<\/a>
Written by Janet Crago<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We recently had an opportunity to visit one of the EYN resettlement camps at Luvu Masaka, located near Nigeria\u2019s capital city of Abuja, and collected several different stories about how people ended up there.\u00a0 All of the people interviewed had fled from the far Northeastern part of the EYN Mission area, located near the Sambisa Forest and Gwoza, the self-proclaimed Capital of Boko Haram\u2019s Islamic State.\u00a0 The people in this area have endured attack after attack from Boko Haram over the past several years.\u00a0 And, as this is written in August of 2015, the area is still considered to be unsafe for these Christians to return. Many Christians think they will never be able to return to this area.\u00a0 The stories are hard to hear, and even harder to imagine, but I\u2019m reporting their stories as told to me.<\/p>\n

John <\/strong>\u00a0– In Barawa, John had a flat with 4 bedrooms. But, in 2011, Boko<\/p>\n

\"John\"<\/a>
John<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Haram came and burned his house.\u00a0 He ran one way while his wife and children ran another.\u00a0 John ran to the Cameroon mountains with other refugees where he stayed for about a year.\u00a0 Then, Boko Haram found them there, and killed many more people. Eventually, he heard from his wife and learned that she had gone to Autabalfe in Nasarawa State located south and west of Jos, which is right in the center of Nigeria.\u00a0 Six children are with her.\u00a0 He traveled to Autabalfe to be with them, but they don\u2019t have a place to live yet.\u00a0 He came to the camp hoping to find a place to stay.\u00a0 He is a farmer but he says he is willing to do any kind of work to support his family and will accept any type of accommodation.\u00a0 He is desperate.<\/p>\n

\"Adamu\"<\/a>
Adamu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adamu <\/strong>\u00a0– On March 13, 2013, Boko Haram came to Gavva West and burned and looted their church.\u00a0 Four people were killed.\u00a0 Then, in April of 2013, Boko Haram came again and burned his son\u2019s house and car.\u00a0 And, in September and October of 2013, they came and chased everyone away, when they burnt the entire village, killing another 15 people.\u00a0 Adamu finally fled to the neighboring village of Gavva close to the Cameroon border.\u00a0 When Boko Haram came to Gavva, they burned two EYN churches and many houses.\u00a0 This time, when they were chased from Gavva, he fled to Michika.\u00a0 Then Boko Haram came to Michika and he fled to Maiduguri where he spent about four months while his son supported him.\u00a0 When he left Maiduguri, he only had 2 trousers and 2 shirts.\u00a0 He\u2019s now come to the resettlement camp at Masaka looking for a place to stay.\u00a0 He has seven children and his wife living with him.\u00a0 He thanks God, and the relief team, for his very survival.\u00a0 He got transport money from his sons and was able to come to the camp at Masaka, where he is looking for a new place to settle.<\/p>\n

Zakariya \u00a0<\/strong>was not at home in Gavva when the Boko Haram attacks came.\u00a0 He<\/p>\n

\"Zakariya\"<\/a>
Zakariya<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

had been studying in Maiduguri, where he graduated with a Higher National Diploma in Banking and Finance.\u00a0 He related the story as told to him by his relatives.\u00a0 Boko Haram came to Gavva East in Nov of 2013 and destroyed 18 houses and killed three people.\u00a0 Then they left and many people stayed.\u00a0 In Sept of 2014, Boko Haram came back.\u00a0 Anyone that ran away was shot. They killed all the men they could find and burned the houses of all the Christians, looting personal property by taking TVs, clothes, cars, cows, and stores of food. People were forced to convert to Islam or die.<\/p>\n

Those who were able to get away ran to the mountains.\u00a0 Older people who couldn\u2019t climb were killed.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t killing women, but forced them to convert and enslaved them.\u00a0 Some people escaped to Cameroon.\u00a0 Some who escaped to the mountains are still there, where many have died of hunger and some can\u2019t get out.\u00a0 As Zakariya was telling his story, one man who spent many months in the mountains volunteered the information that he and another man repeatedly came down into Gavva in the night to search for food left behind so they could carry it back up to the mountains to be shared around.\u00a0 This is how they are surviving.<\/p>\n

Zakaria\u2019s mother initially refused to come out of the village but has now gone to live in the mountains.\u00a0 Another person reported to him that she is alive, but he hasn\u2019t heard from her in many months.\u00a0 If they have a fire to cook something, the smoke from the fire will reveal their presence and get them killed.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t know if she is surviving.<\/p>\n

\"Musa\"<\/a>
Musa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Musa <\/strong>\u00a0– On June 13, 2014 many people were going to church when Boko Haram came with their machine guns and attacked.\u00a0 Three people were killed before the people of Attagara chased the Boko Haram away, killing some of the Boko Haram in the process.\u00a0 The Christians were so angry that they burned Muslim homes in Attagara and chased them away.\u00a0 Before long, though, Boko Haram came back and chased all the Christians away, killing 84 people in the process.\u00a0 All the survivors fled.\u00a0 The Boko Haram looted goods and burned all the houses where Christians lived.\u00a0 Musa fled into Cameroon.\u00a0 After some time and a difficult journey, he has now come to the camp in Masaka.\u00a0 He has been assigned a home and has a job working in the Gurku camp.\u00a0 He has a wife and 4 children.\u00a0 He has committed everything unto God and is enduring.<\/p>\n

The day we were at Masaka, we witnessed a distribution of food and supplies to the residents of the camp.\u00a0 All these supplies were provided by the EYN Relief Distribution Team who, receive funding from CAM (Christian Aid Ministries) and the COB Crisis Relief Fund.\u00a0 Families in this camp feel very fortunate to have a small home that they can move into.\u00a0 Those homes were built with funds from the COB Crisis Relief Fund, and some land around the houses was also purchased.\u00a0 It requires hard work to till, plant and harvest but there\u2019s still time to plant some things and get them harvested before the rains end in October.\u00a0 Our prayer this day was that God will bless the new homes that are being established, and provide these people with a bountiful harvest.<\/p>\n

\"Distribution<\/a>
Distribution of household items at Masaka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Footnote:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 This is a little history of the tribes in the Gavva area. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The people in this area have a very rich tribal history.\u00a0 Most of the villages have their own language.\u00a0 In the days of the slavers (the early 1800\u2019s) where they were trying to capture people to sell into slavery, the Islamic slavers had horses they used to chase the people and capture them by running them down.\u00a0 Soon the people retreated to the mountaintops where they could live in relative peace.\u00a0 There was water on the mountaintops and they only had to come down sometimes to plant and harvest crops.\u00a0 If the slavers came while they were on the mountaintops they could throw rocks down on them or throw spears at them, making it much more difficult for them to capture people.\u00a0 While living on the mountaintops, each mountaintop developed its own language, different from all the rest.\u00a0 So today, if you are from a small area in northeast Nigeria, you share a common language with only a few people.\u00a0 This creates a very strong bond.\u00a0 This area has a rich farming background where these people have been farmers for many generations.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently had an opportunity to visit one of the EYN resettlement camps at Luvu Masaka, located near Nigeria\u2019s capital city of Abuja, and collected several different stories about how people ended up there.\u00a0 All of the people interviewed had fled from the far Northeastern part of the EYN Mission area, located near the Sambisa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[139,370,419,813,814,882,921],"class_list":["post-4471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nigeria","tag-boko-haram","tag-ekklesiyar-yanuwa-a-nigeria","tag-eyn","tag-nigeria","tag-nigeria-crisis","tag-peace","tag-prayer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}