NIAMEY, NIGER - Boko Haram is determined to take its jihadist campaign beyond Nigeria. Its next targets include Niger, where — as reported in an alarming email message from a woman working as a missionary in the country — the group has proclaimed that “Christians must die.”
Currently in hiding along with her fellow missionaries in private homes in Niger’s capital of Niamey, the sister wrote to Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic charity.
Excerpts of her lengthy email were posted by Catholic News Agency.
The recent violent protests in both Niamey and the town of Zinder against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo—killing 10 and wounding 173 people—“were planned” and instigated by the Nigerian terrorist organization, she wrote.
“At Christmas time, Boko Haram had threatened to burn down all the churches in Niger and burn us alive! But for some reason it did not happen; no one knows quite why,” wrote the missionary, whose name was withheld for her protection.
“It was by coincidence that the cartoons in Charlie Hebdo set the world on fire. ‘The Christians must die; that way we will be able to go to paradise,’ say the disciples of Boko Haram. It’s diabolical. But we are not going to let ourselves be moved by fear. Love is stronger than hatred,” she wrote.
The woman said the attacks “started in Zinder first of all – with five deaths, four people inside a church and one in a cafe. The French cultural center was attacked and totally burned out, as was a bank.
“The church, where the Missionaries of Africa live, was also set on fire, along with the neighboring residence of the Sisters of the Assumption, along with their cars and the school – everything was on fire. They have nothing left except their lives, and that alone is something to be grateful for. They were able to flee in time and took refuge on a military base.”
The sister described the violence in Niamey as being “on a major scale.” A group of men on motorcycles looted “the churches, one after another,” then destroyed them.
“They took away everything they could use and then set fire to them, with cans of petrol. They also burned the Protestant and Evangelical churches – altogether around 40 churches; it was incredible.”
Next bars, restaurants and gas stations—and even orphanages: “Fortunately the caretakers were able to take the children to police stations, where they were safe, but the attackers stole all the supplies of food,” the email message said.
The Sisters of Charity were at least able to save their hospital, along with its patients, she wrote.
The violent demonstrators were about to set fire to the hospital, but they were confronted by people who asked, “Can we first of all take out the patients before you set fire to it?”
“These words gave the rebels pause for thought and as a result they did not touch the hospital, but nevertheless they still burned down the church,” the missionary reported.
Continuing her account, the sister wrote: “When Bishop Djalwana Laurent Lompo of Niamey heard that two communities of sisters were being attacked, he told them they must flee immediately and seek refuge. We had already had phone calls from concerned Muslim friends, who had urged us: ‘Come with us, they will not burn down the neighborhood where they themselves live.’”
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