Update on Christians Killed in Nigeria

More information about these attacks. The death toll may be higher than the nine originally reported.

Indications that the death toll following the weekend’s violence in the Tundun Wada area of Kano State, northern Nigeria, may be higher than initially estimated are beginning to emerge as more information about the causes of the violence are brought to light, Christian Today has learned.

Official figures suggest around nine Christians were killed, several churches were burnt and businesses and homes belonging to non-Muslims were destroyed during religious violence. Even Christian policemen are reported to have lost their homes and property.

As tensions slowly subside in the area, the circumstances which triggered the violence are gradually coming to light.

The violence appears to have begun on the morning of 28 September 2007, when a group of Muslim students invaded a room shared by two Christian students at the Government Secondary School in Tudun Wada Na Kande, and began to assault them severely.

When the Christian students asked what they had done wrong, their assailants initially told them to “mind their own business”. However, once the school principal arrived at the scene, the Christians were accused of drawing a picture of Mohammed on a mosque wall and of planning an assault on Muslim students.