Nigeria

A pair of Nigerian brothers pleaded guilty to conspiring to sexually exploit American minors after a 17-year-old Michigan boy committed suicide as a result of their online sextortion scheme.

Gunmen who kidnapped 286 students and staff from a school in Nigeria are threatening to kill the hostages unless a ransom is paid.

Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadis are once more accused of kidnapping dozens of women from a refugee camp in northeastern Nigeria.

China has the highest level of government restrictions on religion, and Nigeria has the highest level of social hostilities toward religion.

One of Nigeria’s most prominent bankers, Herbert Wigwe, was killed along with his wife, son, and two others in a Friday night helicopter crash in the California desert.

The military juntas ruling the nations of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso issued a joint statement on Sunday announcing their exit from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Reports began surfacing on Tuesday out of Mangu, Plateau state, Nigeria, of mass mob attacks on “those perceived to be Christians” and the burning down of church buildings.

Christians around the world found themselves “easy targets” for both destabilizing terrorist groups and insecure dictators, the head of a global Christian aid organization told Breitbart News this weekend.

Islamist militants carried out coordinated attacks on Christian communities in northeastern Nigeria on New Year’s Day, killing at least 14, Barnabas Aid reported Tuesday.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) immediately criticized Secretary of State Antony Blinken for once again leaving Nigeria off the State Department’s annual list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC) for religious oppression. 

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, said Fulani Islamists come from “the deepest pit of hell” following the massacre of more than 200 Christians over the Christmas holidays.

Fulani Muslims carried out coordinated attacks on Christians over Christmas in 26 villages of Nigeria’s Middle Belt, leaving some 170 dead.

Local authorities in Plateau state, Nigeria, updated the death toll of a presumed jihadist massacre of Christians on Christmas Eve to 195.

The governor of Plateau, Nigeria, denounced the long-term occupation of at least 64 Christian communities in his state.

At least 140 people were killed by gunmen who attacked remote villages over two days in north-central Nigeria’s Plateau state, survivors and officials said Tuesday.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) warned in its annual report that religious freedom deteriorated around the world in 2023, a net loss driven by increasingly vicious crackdowns from theocracies like Iran and authoritarian regimes like China and Cuba.

Christians in Nigeria will celebrate Christmas this year facing a relentless onslaught of jihadist terrorism seeking to eliminate them from the country, experts told Breitbart News, with little support from their government.

The Nigerian Army conducted a “mistaken” drone strike on a village during a Muslim festival on Sunday, killing over 90 people.

Upwards of 150 people have been abducted by gunmen in Nigeria’s northwest, local residents said, pointing to dozens of armed men on motorcycles who stormed villages in Zamfara state for the punitive raid.

Fulani Muslim raiders gunned down the pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All in Kaduna State, Nigeria, late last week and kidnapped his wife for ransom.

Nigeria is the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian, according to a report on Christian persecution by International Christian Concern (ICC).

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu signed a $2.8 billion budget on Wednesday, which included lavish funding for a presidential yacht.

A mob of Fulani Muslim raiders torched a Catholic parish rectory in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, killing a 25-year-old seminarian, local media reported.

Former OPEC president Diezani Alison-Madueke has been charged with bribery offences, the UK National Crime Agency said on Tuesday.

General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the leader of the Niger military coup, announced that he would not remain in power for over three years.

Nigerian Haggai Ndubuisi only heard of American football for the first time when he was 18 after seeing the game on Youtube.

Terrorists reportedly identified as “Fulani militia” stormed two villages in central Plateau state overnight Thursday, killing 21 people and making a mockery of government checkpoints set up after police received tips that local “bandits” were organizing an attack.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a coalition led by Nigeria, agreed during an emergency meeting on Thursday to order its military leaders to “activate” its armed forces “immediately” to prepare for an invasion of Niger.

The leaders of the “National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland,” a group of soldiers who staged a coup in Niger on July 26, failed to allow diplomats representing the United Nations and African Union from entering the country on Tuesday, claiming public “anger” made it unsafe for them to land.

The Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) called an emergency meeting for Thursday this week after the passage of an ultimatum it issued to coup organizers in Niger to restore the democratically elected government or face a potential military invasion.

The military junta in control of Niger since July 26 announced on Sunday that, in response to a threat of invasion by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), it would shut down the country’s airspace and issue an “energetic and instant response” to any unauthorized flights over its territory.

President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger, deposed by a military coup d’etat last week and believed to be trapped in his presidential residence, declared himself a “hostage” and in a Washington Post column published on Thursday asked for American intervention on his behalf.

The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed on Tuesday that American troops remain in Niger and have no imminent plan to leave, though they remain in “clearly a not-normal situation” following the head of the presidential guard staging an attempted coup d’etat against President Mohamed Bazoum.

The governments of Burkina Faso and Mali issued statements on Monday defending the military coup in Niger last week, stating that any military intervention by democratic neighbors to oust the coup leaders in Niger would be a “declaration of war” against them, as well.

The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), following an emergency meeting on Sunday, announced that it would consider “force” to oust the leaders of a coup d’etat in Niger last week, rejecting their authority and declaring “zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government.”

Strengthening the American relationship with Nigeria, a longtime ally increasingly close to communist China, “shouldn’t be at the expense of Christian lives,” a priest serving the heart of Christian Nigeria told Breitbart News in an interview last week.