By Masara Kim
It takes a village to feast on a cow –especially at Christmas.
An Iowa-based evangelical missionary and political activist, Saul is reaching out to feed thousands of Nigerians uprooted by Islamic terrorists this Christmas season.
Saul’s nonprofit, Equipping the Persecuted Initiative stands among few organizations giving hope to the survivors. In recent years, the organization has helped more than 400,000 victims with food, shelter, medical treatment and free education for orphans.
The latest intervention involves the ongoing distribution of more than 40 cows to provide beef to thousands of victims this Christmas according to Mr. Saul.
“We estimate that one cow could help feed up to 500 people in an IDP camp,” Saul told TruthNigeria.
“So we assessed the situation and tried to find out how many IDPs are in certain camps, but we want to bless as as many people for Christmas as possible,” said Saul, noting the annual intervention launched last year aims to encourage and enable persecuted Christians celebrate Christmas with renewed hope.
“Many of them have been displaced from their homes and no longer have access to food or red meat and we just wanted to help to put smiles on their faces,” Saul said.
Despite ongoing violence prompting the American mission in Abuja to routinely update its travel advisory to U.S. citizens, Saul recently led a team from the United States to show solidarity and launch the distribution ahead of the Christmas celebration.
“Our mission is to help our brothers and sisters in Christ,” said Saul in a makeshift village for 400 displaced Christians on the outskirts of Abuja.
“And ever since we started this tradition, we have seen nothing but joy on the faces of these villagers that we give the cows to,” Saul said.
Saul’s Equipping the Persecuted Initiative had previously built a school for children in the village of Kutara, located 20miles southeast of the Nigerian capital.
“I lack words to express our gratitude,” said camp leader Gaji Yusuf Mazha.
“All I can say is God bless you,” Mazha said, describing the donation of a 120pound cow in addition to a school previously built for children in the camp as lifesaving.
“Before now, our children could not read or write, but now, we have hopes for a bright future in them,” he said.
Root Causes of Terrorism in Nigeria: Poor Governance, Faulty Rule of Law and Sectarian Hatred
The thousands of men, women and children sheltering under mosquito nets in camps surrounding Makurdi once had comfortable farms and brick-block houses in the lush farmlands of Benue State. They were forced off their ancestral lands during the last few years by land-grabbing, radicalized terrorists, according to Silent Slaughter, a history of the Christian Genocide in Nigeria.
The Observatory of Religious Freedom Report (ORFA) reports as many as 55,000 Christians have been killed in the last four years by insurgents and kidnap-for-ransom terrorists attempting to impose a caliphate in the largest black nation.
Last year alone, Nigeria accounted for 82% of the world’s number of Christians killed for their faith in 2023 as per Open Doors International. At least 13 Christians were killed every day for their faith, making the country the most dangerous place for Christians according to Sean Nelson, the Legal Counsel for Global Religious Freedom at ADF International.
Despite having the highest defense budget in sub-Saharan Africa,
Nigerian authorities have failed to protect local Christians. Lawmakers speaking to TruthNigeria have accused President Bola Tinubu of concentrating military action in majority-Muslim states, ignoring attacks in the so-called Christian belt in the north central region.
Caroline Cox, a member of the UK House of Lords told TruthNigeria after her recent visit to the country the Nigerian State’s failure to protect its citizens is not due to a lack of resources in the Middle Belt but a lack of willingness to engage.
“In the areas of all the attack sites we visited in Plateau and Kaduna states, the army presence was visible,” wrote Cox to TruthNigeria.
“On the main roads to and from each community, we encountered multiple manned checkpoints and armed vehicles, and sometimes full army bases,” Cox wrote in an email.
“Yet we consistently heard that, even though villagers called the army for help during attacks, soldiers arrived only after the attack was complete,” Cox wrote.
In several instances reported by TruthNigeria, soldiers fired on and arrested civil defenders protecting their homes with handcrafted pipe guns and hunting rifles. Lawmakers and rights activists speaking to TruthNigeria have equally criticized the country’s strict gun control laws which they say target Christians and ethnic minorities.
The escalating situation has forced more than 1,302,443 people to flee their homes, as reported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Masara Kim is a conflict reporter in Jos and a senior editor at TruthNigeria.
