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Ten Killed, Three Churches Set Ablaze in Bauchi, Nigeria | Pastor Umaru Sule’s house |
According to Compass Direct News, 10 persons have been killed and three churches set on fire after Muslim high school students in a northern Nigerian city began a rampage on December 11 that spilled into the city. Tensions are still high in the area.An eyewitness at the high school said the Muslim students attacked their Christian peers after unidentified people pulled out two foundation blocks of a high school mosque under construction. Area Muslims joined the attacking students, resulting in the deaths and damages in the city, including the burning of dozens of homes belonging to Christians. The identity of nine of the 10 people killed has been kept secret as the Bauchi state government has ordered security agents to remove the corpses and bury them in a common grave. Eyewitnesses told Compass they were buried this last week. The 10th person killed was a Christian security agent with the State Security Service, identified by eyewitnesses only by his surname, Bogoro, a member of the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Yelwa. The three churches set aflame in Bauchi after Muslim students began attacking Christian students at the Government Day Secondary School (also known as Baba Tanko Secondary School) in the Yelwa Tudu area of Bauchi are Pentecostal: Elim Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God, and the Assemblies of God Church. In addition, area Muslims set fire to dozens of houses belonging to Christians. Among the houses burned was that of the Rev. Umaru Sule, associate pastor of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA ) of Yelwa Makaranta, and that of the Rev. Maina Joshua of Kagadama. A teacher at the Government Day Secondary School-Yelwa, who pleaded that his identity remain undisclosed out of fear of Muslim attack and government penalty, said he witnessed the sparking of the rampage when Muslim students claimed that the foundation of the school mosque had been pulled down. The teacher told Compass that the Muslim students had won approval to build a mosque at the 3,655-student school on December 2 and began building its foundation the same day.  | Elim church |
“On December 3, which was a Monday, I was in the school and I heard the Muslim students complaining that unknown persons had pulled out two blocks from the foundation,” the teacher said. “They threatened to attack Christians in the area for this. The principal and other staff in the tried to solve the problem that day, and I thought all was over.”The teacher said that on December 11 he was administering a geography test to senior students when Muslim students “trooped out from the classes and said they would not write the examination. They converged at the site of the school mosque and began chanting Allahu Akbar [God is Great].” Muslim students began attacking Christians in their classes, he said. They reportedly had agreed not to take exams until the school administration resolved the problem of the damaged foundation of the planned mosque. “They broke chairs and desks,” he said. “They also attacked their Christian colleagues with knives and daggers. I had to run for my dear life because the situation became uncontrollable.” The teacher explained that this situation snowballed into a town riot, resulting in the deaths of 10 people and the three fire-damaged churches. Nigerian press reports of unidentified mosques set aflame have not been verified.
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