Mark Lipdo (Director of Stefanos Foundation) told delegates at Church in Chains’ annual conference at Trinity Church in Dublin’s city centre that he had come to Ireland to “tell you what is happening to Christians in Nigeria so that you will continue to pray with us because we are one body and when one part of the body is suffering, the other [parts] will feel the pain”.

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Mark described the rich diversity of Nigeria, with over six hundred tribes and languages and how historically every tribe had its own religion. He spoke about the coming of various strands of Christianity to Nigeria through the work of British Anglican missionaries, Roman Catholic missionaries and American Baptist missionaries and also about the coming of Islam, leading to today’s situation in which most of the north is Muslim, most of the south is Christian and the Middle Belt is a mixed region where both Christians and Muslims live.

Mark went on to trace the history of the persecution that is currently affecting many Christians living in the north and Middle Belt regions, from the imposition of Islamic Sharia law in twelve northern states in 1999 to the formation of Boko Haram in the northeast and its campaign of terror against the Nigerian government and the Christian community. This has resulted in churches being bombed and Christians being killed and kidnapped – most famously the Chibok girls in 2014.

The 9/7 attack on Jos

Mark spoke about the shock of the 2001 mob attack on the Christian community in Jos (his home city), saying: “We call it 9/7 because it started four days before the 9/11 attacks on New York”. The shock was magnified as the name “Jos” was well known as being an acronym for “Jesus Our Saviour” and suddenly mobs were attacking chanting “Allahu Akhbar – Allah has given us our city we should rise up and take this city from the infidels”.

Mark said, “We began to wonder why our city why would be the city of Muslims. I didn’t know what to do as a young Christian. Should I get guns? Why are these people so violent? Why are they killing people? I recorded 142 widows whose husbands were killed and because I was a young building engineer and was running a successful company at that time I tried to do something and the only thing I could do was to help these widows continue to live their lives. That’s how I started this work.”

“The victims know the people who attacked them”

Mark outlined the rise of the armed Muslim Fulani militia targeting Christians living in the Middle Belt, saying that the media found it difficult to report on the attacks as the Nigerian government insisted on describing the perpetrators as “gunmen” or sometimes “herdsmen”.

However, Mark told delegates that “a herdsman carrying an AK-47 is no longer a herdsman; he is a member of a militia”. Mark also pointed out that “the victims know the people who attacked them”.  He told delegates that Christians did not take up arms because the church is motivated by love, as its mission is to win people to Christ.

Mark said that many attacks on Christians have been documented in his book (published in 2015) titled “Killings in North and Central Nigeria: A threat to Ethno-Religious Freedom and Democracy” and a subsequent report from the Stefanos Foundation titled “Loud Silence” (published in 2021). Both publications include comprehensive details of attacks against Christian communities over many years.

Mark’s speech was preceded by a video showing Stefanos aid work in Bokkos in January 2024 following the Black Christmas attacks in December 2023 and was followed by another video showing the graduation ceremony at Stefanos’ Convert Care centre (both projects were supported by Church in Chains).

The session closed with Pamela Coulter praying for Mark, the work of Stefanos and Nigeria’s Christians.

Questions and Answers

After a short break, there was a Q & A session with Mark in which he answered a wide range of questions from delegates attending both in-person and online (some of his answers will be included in the Autumn issue of Church in Chains magazine). Questions included: “Why do some Muslims accept what they describe as infidels in their midst while others are not willing to do?”  “What is the Nigerian government doing about the attacks on Christians, have any arrests been made and has anyone been held accountable?” “How should we answer when people tell us the conflict in Nigeria is simply a conflict over land resources between herdsmen and farmers?” “Is there compensation from the government for victims and their families?” and “What can you tell us about the experience of the Catholic Church in Nigeria?”

Global Updates

Virginia Chipperfield updated conference delegates on recent developments in China, Eritrea and Pakistan. China has been in focus recently with the Church in Chains petition, initiated because the situation for Christians is getting worse. Registered churches must comply with increasingly repressive regulations, while unregistered house churches are banned, raided and their leaders detained in an effort to wipe them out. Virginia spoke about a recent raid on Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan province and the detention of Xin Ruoyu from Guangzhou province, detained in July for developing a Christian app called “Song of Songs”.

Eritrea was the focus of last year’s conference and in Virginia’s update she reported that about fifty of the Mahalian gospel singers are still in prison (those released have not been allowed back to college) and that over 120 Christians have been arrested this year, mostly during night raids on their homes in May and June. Last year’s speaker Dr Berhane Asmelash has published a book and copies on the Church in Chains stand sold out!

Pakistan continues to be a country of huge concern because of the ongoing misuse of the blasphemy laws to target minorities. Two cases were highlighted: Shagufta Kiran, who was sentenced to death in September, and Zafar Bhatti, who has been in prison for twelve years and is also under the death sentence.

Virginia finished with a piece of good news! Four days before the conference, Iranian Christian Anooshavan Avedian was acquitted and released after a year in Evin Prison. He had been serving a ten-year prison sentence for leading a house church.