Every day is a game of roulette-not a matter of if the bullet will fire, but when. The militants blocked the highway and abducted several carloads of people, taking them into the bush to demand a ransom.Īreas all throughout the Middle Belt are waiting targets for religious persecution at the hands of Boko Haram and Fulani militants. ICC’s staffers missed a daylight abduction outside a village they visited by about an hour.
Women and children in Nigeria’s Middle Belt do not have the luxury of living in peace without wondering in the back of their minds if they are safe or in danger. In another village where ICC works, four people lost their lives in an attack, including a five-year-old girl and a woman who was eight months pregnant. An act as innocent as gathering household supplies can result in a death sentence. On his way back from the market, an ICC farm beneficiary was killed in an ambush. In fact, during the June trip, there were many reports of attacks and murders. The Nigerian government’s lackluster response to the malicious groups, Fulani militants and Boko Haram, allows them to roam about, largely impervious to prosecution for their crimes.
ICC’s communal farms are a huge part of the solution for these persecuted communities, but they aren’t everything. Headquarters staff (from Washington, D.C.) and local staff travelled around Nigeria for two weeks, checking in on the farmers and listening to their stories.Įach story was unique, but they shared common threads of loss, grief, and hope for the future. To bring assistance to the region, ICC helped develop several farms in the Middle Belt. Their livelihoods were destroyed, and many were left directionless, asking themselves, “What do we do now?”
It was a blessing for them to see another season of rain.īut others, victims of religious persecution, experienced devastation as ravaging malicious groups swept through their farmland, hacking down hundreds of acres of crops, setting fire to houses, and attacking and killing villagers. Some were fortunate enough to see this come to pass. Nigeria’s troubled Middle Belt region was just entering its rainy season when two staffers from ICC’s headquarters landed in Abuja in June-their first trip to the country since COVID-19 broke out in the early months of 2020.įarmers in the surrounding states were busy readying their fields for the rains, looking forward to the satisfaction of seeing shoots come up and crops ripen as the wet summer months progressed. Something so simple as a sprouting seed carried the weight of the livelihood of so many Nigerians. Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – The ground was freshly muddy, causing tire tracks and mud splashes everywhere, but for the seedlings in the ground, the rain was a lifeline.
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