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Gunmen reportedly attacked a church in Nigeria, killing at least two people and kidnapping the pastor and some worshippers, according to Reuters, which cited police and witnesses.
The attack occurred on Tuesday evening in Eruku, a town in central Nigeria’s Kwara State. Reuters said it reviewed and verified a video from a local news outlet showing gunfire interrupting a service at Christ Apostolic Church and forcing parishioners to take cover. The outlet noted that in the video, armed men are seen entering and taking worshippers’ belongings as gunshots ring out.
AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the governor of Kwara State, Nigeria, reportedly asked for the immediate deployment of security operatives after the attack, Reuters reported citing the governor’s spokesperson.
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The attack comes just days after gunmen kidnapped 25 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria’s Kebbi State and killed at least one staffer. Police spokesperson Nafi’u Abubakar Kotarkoshi told The Associated Press the gunmen had “sophisticated weapons” and exchanged fire with guards before abducting the girls.
“A combined team is currently combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation aimed at recovering the abducted students and arresting the perpetrators,” he said, adding that one person was killed and another was injured.
President Donald Trump has designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern amid escalating violence against Christians in the West African nation.
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On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz held an event highlighting the ongoing violence in Nigeria. During the event, Waltz called the killings of Christians in Nigeria “genocide wearing the mask of chaos.”
“There is a body of evidence, and you are going to hear that from our experts today that paints a very grim picture of disproportionate suffering among Christians, where, again, families are torn apart, clergy is repeatedly assassinated, and entire congregations, church congregations,” Waltz said.
“Folks, we have an entire faith that is being erased, one bullet at a time, one torched Bible at a time,” he added.
Rap superstar Nicki Minaj, who has been vocal about her support for the Trump administration’s efforts to combat the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, spoke at Waltz’s event.
“In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted, driven from their homes and killed. Churches have been burned. Families have been torn apart, and entire communities live in fear constantly, simply because of how they pray,” Minaj said.
“Sadly, this problem is not only a growing problem in Nigeria, but also in so many other countries across the world, and it demands urgent action,” the rap mogul said. “And I want to be clear, protecting Christians in Nigeria is not about taking sides or dividing people. It is about uniting humanity.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to AbdulRazaq’s office and the U.S. mission to the United Nations.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan and Paul Tilsley contributed to this report.