In 1966 an Igbo leader, in south-east Nigeria, said that only one thing would prevent a civil war - ‘that Nigeria be split, with all southerners in the north repatriated to the south and northerners in the south repatriated to the north’. This demand was followed by the Biafra civil war. In June 2017, irked by renewed secessionist calls from the same Igbo ethnic group, a coalition of northern groups demanded that ‘all Igbo currently residing in northern Nigeria relocate within three months, and all northerners residing in the east are advised likewise’. Pray for peace. Meanwhile on 6 August, masked gunmen stormed into the early morning service at a church in the southeast and opened fire, killing 35 Christians. On Tuesday a woman suicide bomber blew herself up and killed 27 others at a market in the northeast. See http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/dead-nigeria-church-shooting-170806153758051.html and https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-security-idUSKCN1AV25K
Pray: for this cry for division to be silenced, and for the harmony that only God can bring. Pray for the church to be strong in the face of adversity. (Ephesians 4:3)
More: www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/nigeria-brink-civil-war-170712131405928.html
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