Members of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram reportedly attacked and killed 11 people in a Christian village in northern Nigeria on Christmas Eve.
According to the BBC, the militants rode into Pemi village in the Borno state and set fire to a church. The militants abducted a priest and took medical supplies from a hospital, then set it on fire.
Open Doors Analyst Illia Djadi told the Christian Daily that Boko Haram that Christians are regularly targeted by the terrorists.
“Christians are the primary target because they are not Muslims. The radicals want to turn them into Muslims by force and if they refuse, they will kill them or turn them into sex slaves,” Djadi said.
“They also attack moderate Muslims who don’t share this radical interpretation of Islam.”
Reports of violence in Nigeria have risen over the past few years, as several groups of bandits are known to kidnap or kill innocent men, women, and children.
CBN News previously reported that Boko Haram claimed responsibility for abducting more than 300 schoolchildren earlier this month.
The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau took credit for the attack, indicating that the children were being punished for “un-Islamic practices”.
And the radicals were suspected of killing 110 Nigerian rice farmers and fishermen while they were harvesting their crops.
Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution but second in the number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Pakistan.
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