More Than a Dozen Killed at Nigeria Church After New Year's Service

War on Christianity - Nigeria

Islam's first massacre of the year came just 20 minutes after midnight, New Years

By Susan McFarland

UPI -- At least 14 people were killed Monday by gunmen in southern Nigeria after a New Year's Day church service, police said.

Gunmen attacked two different locations at the church, in a coordinated effort targeting Christians returning from church around 12: 20 a.m., officials said.

Officials said shooters fired at random at the church, killing some at close range during the early morning ambush after a group attended midnight service in the region of Rivers state.

Fireworks during celebrations in Omuku made it difficult to hear the gunfire, witnesses said. More than 26 people were shot in the attack, about 50 miles from Port Harcourt.

The area has seen an increase in violent crime after a government amnesty program for former gang members was allowed to lapse. The program halted violence in the region, which had been inundated by militants who demanded that more of Nigeria's oil wealth be kept in oil-producing regions.

This massacre was probably not an economics statement, but rather an Islamic assault on Christianity. Dropping the amnesty program may have induced more criminals to be sympathetic to Islamic beliefs and intolerance, but this was certainly an anti-Christian assault.

And it is not surprising that it took Islam just 20 minutes into the new year to perpetrate its first massacre of 2018. Unfortunately, too few people will learn anything from this. Too few people know anything about Islamic history or even the current situation. The west will pay a heavy price for its deliberate ignorance and liberal lunacy.