by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Ahead of an important gubernatorial election which made for an especially tense political atmosphere, a further 10 Christians in Nigeria’s Kaduna state were hacked to death by militants armed with machetes last week, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Just days after 17 Christians were murdered in Kaduna’s Agwan Wakili community, militants ambushed Christians who were sleeping outdoors due to the heat in the nearby communities of Mubushi and Langsong on March 14, 2023, ICC reports. Ten people were killed, and fourteen survived gunshot wounds.
A community leader told ICC that the timing of last week’s attack was calculated to coincide with a gubernatorial election last Saturday. “This attack is the political massacre of Christians in places where [the ruling All Progressives Congress led by Fulani Muslim President Muhammadu Buhari] is likely going to lose the gubernatorial election on March 18, 2023,” a local leader named Dereck told an ICC staffer.
“Christian local farmers are facing a series of attacks during the period of the election in Nigeria. The attack is to displace Christians who will not vote for the ruling APC,” the community leader told ICC.
In its report on last week’s killings, ICC noted: “This series of attacks in Zangon Kataf local government is aimed at depopulating the Christians and preventing them from voting considering that the area is the home local government area of the Labour Party candidate for governor as well as the People’s Democratic Party (BDP) deputy governor candidate. Both are Christians.
With the highest numbers in the world of Christians killed on account of their faith in recent years, Nigeria ranks 6th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.