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As Christians Are Slaughtered, the World Looks Away
Catholics gather for a mass at the Church of the Assumption in Lagos, Nigeria, on April 21, 2025. (Olympia de Maismont/AFP via Getty Images)
Islamists massacred over 200 people in Yelwata, Nigeria—many of them women and children. The media barely mentioned it.
By Madeleine Kearns
06.26.25 — Faith
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It was a night of heavy rainfall in Yelwata, a town in central Nigeria. On Friday June 13, over 500 Christians—many of them women and children—gathered together in temporary shelters in the town’s Market Square. Most of them had fled their homes across the region, hoping to find greater protection in Yelwata from a spate of recent attacks in which Islamist terrorists have massacred Christians.

Earlier in the day, the town’s armed vigilantes and a few policemen had set off to investigate reports of terrorist activity nearby. But this turned out to be a diversion, according to Steven Kefas, a Nigerian journalist.

At around 10:30 p.m., he told me, a “killer squad” of Islamists descended on the town in a three-hour murderous rampage.

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Madeleine Kearns
Madeleine Kearns is an associate editor at The Free Press. Previously, she was a staff writer at National Review where she regularly appeared on the magazine’s flagship podcast, The Editors. Her work has also appeared in The Spectator, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, UnHerd, and a range of other publications. She writes and performs music.
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Nigeria
Africa
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