Catholic Bishops of Nigeria warn of escalating violence and call for urgent action to protect life and religious freedom Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) echoes the urgent appeal of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), which warns of the deepening security crisis in the country and its devastating impact on Christian communities and other vulnerable groups. In a November 25 statement titled “Peace in Nigeria: Moving from Fragility to Stability,” the bishops denounce persistent violence that has ...

With unemployment disproportionately affecting the Christian community, and as a gesture during the Jubilee of Hope, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (LPJ) decided to cancel student debt in all its schools. Even though Christians are the smallest of the three major faith groups present in the Holy Land, after Jews and Muslims, the Catholic Church runs the largest network of schools in the region. More crucially, though, Catholic schools are unique in the composition of their student bodies and in ...

Tobias Yahaya almost lost his life during an attack on his home in Nigeria. Fortunately for him, his wife, and their four small children, Yahaya, who was stabbed in the chest, was saved by doctors in hospital. But Yahaya, a Catholic catechist, gained something more. And perhaps the wider community – his parish in Sokoto City and the predominantly Muslim population of Sokoto State in northwest Nigeria – gained a valuable example. Around 3 A.M. on April 19, 2023, the ...

The Catholic Diocese of Kontagora has reported a violent overnight attack on St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Niger State, Nigeria, resulting in “the kidnapping of pupils, students, teachers, and school personnel, as well as a security guard who was badly shot.” According to the statement sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the armed assailants invaded the school premises between 1:00 A.M and 3:00 A.M. on November 21, causing “fear and distress within the ...

An estimated 128,000 people have had to flee the affected region, according to UN estimates. At least four Christians were murdered by jihadists in northern Mozambique over the past days, in the latest wave of attacks of an insurgency which began in 2017. Although the insurgency began in Cabo Delgado province, it also affects the province bordering Cabo Delgado to the south, Nampula, where the latest violence has taken place. The situation has been particularly dire in the district of ...

The attack represents “a major blow to the education of young girls, which is already quite rare in these parts of the country,” say local sources. The abduction of about 25 students from the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kebbi, has plunged the community into deep shock. A local source consulted by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) explained that the attack caught residents off-guard, at a moment when violence in the ...