Two days after the Boko Haram militants set a church building on fire in the Christian village of Garkida, four Nigerian church elders held service in spite of shock and anguish.
On February 21, heavily armed militants entered the church building where a few women were having a meeting and disrupted the fellowship. They abducted some of the female members of the church and set the church on fire.
According to a local Christian, though the church building was completely destroyed, the four church elders decided to gather and show that the "church isn't the building razed down, but the Christians living – the Christian body is the church."
According to Barnabasfund, a local eyewitness told that the jihadists entered the village in about nine trucks, and more than 50 motorcycles carrying at least two persons on each.
During the six hours attack, the jihadists burnt down two other churches and a health care center, destroyed two ambulances and looted a local market.
In a prayer rally held on February 23, former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, prayed for the peace of Christians in the country.
"Lord, as your people, we bring confession of the needless bloodshed, killings, and attacks by the dreadful Boko Haram insurgents, banditry and the spate of kidnappings and all kinds of evil in various parts of the country. Lord, we plead for your forgiveness, mercy, and cleansing of the land," Gowon prayed.
Since April 2019, the number of attacks against Christians in Nigeria has sharply increased. Let us pray for the peace and protection of Christians in the country.
