Aid to the Church in Need has launched an urgent appeal for persecuted Christians in Nigeria, to ensure protection for clergy, train seminarians, and provide urgent relief for displaced families.
In an interview with Sky News Australia host Gabriella Power, ACN national director Bernard Toutounji described the scale of violence and government denial about targeted attacks on Christians.
“Nigeria today is an epicentre of Christian martyrdom,” Mr Toutounji said. “Since 2000, more than 60,000 Christians have been murdered by Islamist groups like Boko Haram and heavily armed militias.”
Mr Toutounji said persecution was widespread and systematic.
“Christians are not a tiny minority in Nigeria. They make up nearly half the population, yet they live as if second-class citizens, especially in the north.
“Every single day, Nigerian Christians wake up to fresh news of kidnappings or attacks. This is not sporadic; it is targeted, and it has gone on for decades with little accountability.”
ACN has launched an urgent appeal focused on three immediate priorities in Nigeria:
1. Enclosed vehicles for clergy, to provide safe passage for priests and sisters who face kidnappings and ambushes on pastoral trips
2. Formation of seminarians, in response to Nigeria’s abundant vocations and to ensure future priests are spiritually, pastorally, and psychologically prepared to serve their communities
3. Lifesaving relief for internally displaced persons, including food, shelter and basic necessities for families forced from their homes by village raids, massacres and church burnings
“For almost 80 years, ACN has sustained the faith where it is under greatest assault,” Mr Toutounji said. “We are a pastoral organisation. We build and rebuild churches, support poor nuns and priests, provide means of transport, train seminarians, and fund trauma healing and reconciliation centres. As our founder said, ‘They are being tested in faith, but we are being tested in love.’”
As a recognised global authority on religious freedom, ACN’s biennial Religious Freedom in the World Report covers 196 countries and runs to nearly 900 pages; today it stands as one of only four major global reports on religious freedom, and the only non-governmental report. The next edition will be launched on October 21.
Donate: ACN Nigeria appeal
FULL STORY
Nigeria is “an epicentre of Christian martyrdom” (ACN)
Bernard Toutounji on Sky News Australia (Sky News Australia)
