Imagine someone going door to door on a college campus asking young adults if they’re a Christian. Then separating the Christian students from the Muslim students, addressing each victim by name, questioning them, and then proceeded to shoot them or slit their throat in front of other victims. This masacre happened days ago in Nigeria.
The Christian Post confirmed that about 25 to 30 Christian college students were massacred at a university in northeastern Nigeria late Monday night, causing Christians to pray for a “change of heart” among the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram to put a stop to the continued violence.
While there is speculation as to the motive of the massacre, sources close to the human rights watchdog Open Doors USA confirm that the massacre was performed by Boko Haram.
Emily Fuentes, the communications and public relations coordinator for Open Doors who recently visited Nigeria and spoke to Christian leaders about Boko Haram, told The Christian Post that believers around the world can agree that prayer is the “only thing that will change the people of Boko Haram.”
“There are people who are turning to Christ who used to be in the Boko Haram, and God is changing their hearts.”
“A lot of Christians believe that God will change these peoples’ hearts,” she added.
The killings reportedly occurred in the late night hours on Oct. 1, when masked gunmen went door-to-door in the off-campus housing section of Federal Polytechnic College in Mubi, a city in the remote Adamawa State in northeastern Nigeria.
Fuentes told the Christian Post that according to a local Nigerian police chief, Monday night’s killing were performed by Boko Haram as an act of reprisal after 156 Boko Haram members were arrested in Mubi in late September.
Fuentes says that the goal of the terror group, which has reportedly overtaken 13 of Nigeria’s northern states, is to make the country a completely Islamic nation and rid it of all western influence.
“In these [Nigerian] states to be a Christian is of grave danger,” Fuentes said, adding that killing Christians is “Boko Haram’s way of wiping out western influence.”
