Members of Churches of Christ in the African nation of Nigeria are rattled but safe after a series of brutal slayings in villages near the city of Jos.
"In Jos city, where we are, there is a completely enforced curfew, so things like what happened Sunday are very unlikely to occur here," said Dr. Bob Whittaker, who moved to the central Nigerian city just weeks ago with his wife, Annette and son, Ozioma. For nearly 25 years Whittaker served as a medical missionary at Nigerian Christian Hospital near Aba, south of Jos. In August 2009 he endured a 48-hour kidnapping ordeal, during which he suffered a gunshot wound to the arm. Whittaker has since received a nerve graft in a U.S. hospital. He completed a medical mission trip to Haiti before returning to Nigeria and relocating his ministry to Jos.
Jos, a city of about a half-million people, sits near the divide between Nigeria's predominantly Christian south and Muslim north. Local officials counted 378 bodies after the recent massacres in four villages near Jos, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The attacks, focused mainly on people who claim Christianity as their faith, likely was a reprisal for similar attacks in January, when Christian villagers targeted Muslims, killing at least 300, according to the newspaper.
Source: Christian Chronicle | ERIK TRYGGESTAD
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