In an ISWAP/Boko Haram attack on Kautikari town on Jan. 15, at least three people were killed and five people were abducted. Two churches of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and more than 20 houses were burned. Kautikari is one of many communities devastated in Chibok and other local government areas in Borno State, Nigeria, where churches and Christians are targeted.
Two Borno and Adamawa communities were attacked in northeastern Nigeria in late December, as prayers were intensifying for the release of Andrawus Indawa, coordinator of Pastoral Enhancement Ministry for Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria).
I recently visited northeast Nigeria after a three-year absence. This was my fifth trip to Nigeria and my travel was centered around my role as an international adviser to a UNESCO World Heritage Site encampment at Sukur near Madagali on Aug 1-10, 2021 (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/938). However, what I came to discern as the “theme” of this trip was unexpected encounters–people, places, and things.
Charles Ezra, about 70 years old, assists on the Disaster Relief Management Medical Team of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). He was abducted Saturday, Dec. 4, on his way home from his farm. He rejoined his family after three terrible days in the hands of his abductors. In more news from EYN, president Joel S. Billi has release his Christmas message.
The Nigeria Crisis Response budget for 2022 has been set at $183,000 after careful deliberation. Five years ago, we expected the Nigerian government would restore order in northeast Nigeria and families could return to their homes while the response supported their recovery. This led to planning to end the crisis response in 2021, but these plans had to be revised due to ongoing violence.
An attack on Askira Uba left soldiers and many terrorists killed, shops and cars burnt, a few civilians sustaining stray bullet injuries in the encounter that seemed to be a revenge mission by Islamic State West Africa Province (IWAP) for a recent attack on the terrorists’ camp in Sambisa by the Joint Task Force. Many of the terrorists were neutralized after their attempt to wage an attack on a village call Bungulwa, village locals said.
What fuels Rebecca Dali’s passion when “responding with compassion to the most vulnerable persons in northeastern Nigeria”? According to Dali it is her personal story and history–one of “poverty, frustration, rape, a son abducted (by Boko Haram) 11 years ago”–that inspire her life’s work.
Translation of the New Testament into Margi South, a language of northeast Nigeria, is close to completion according to Sikabiya Ishaya Samson. He is a minister with Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) who has been working on the translation as a language programs manager for ITDAL (Initiative for the Development of African Languages) based in the city of Jos.
Provost Dauda A. Gava of Kulp Theological Seminary (KTS), an institution of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and affiliated to the University of Jos, charged the class of newly admitted students to study hard after choosing where he called the right institution of study.
Hillcrest School in Jos, Nigeria, has issued a statement about former principal James McDowell’s admission of having molested students. He was principal from 1974-1984. He made the admission in a Facebook post on April 15. McDowell was not a Church of the Brethren mission worker.