The nutrition situation in Borno and Yobe states in NIGERIA is extreme. The Boko Haram conflict has contributed to large-scale population displacement, limiting market activity, and restricting normal livelihoods. Other areas of highest concern are ETHIOPIA: following a severe drought, more people will need food assistance over the coming year than at any time in the past ten years. SUDAN: below-average national food production and very large pasture deficits. SOUTH SUDAN: conflicts continue to disrupt trade, humanitarian access, and livelihoods. Food security has deteriorated to ‘Emergency’ in Northern Bahr el Ghazal. YEMEN: extensive conflict has reduced incomes and elevated food prices. Food is inadequate for poor households. Many are suffering from the 2015/16 El Niño which led to drought. SOUTHERN AFRICA: 2016 is a second poor food production year. The number of people in crisis is expected to continue to increase through the year . HAITI: there are below-average agricultural seasons, reduced labour demand, and continuing high staple food prices.

Pray: for those experiencing food price increases, and the millions of hungry displaced populations. (Is.51:4b)
More: www.fews.net/

Nigeria's army expects to seize Boko Haram's last few strongholds in the northeast over the next few weeks, the commander in charge said on Wednesday. The army has retaken most of the territory - at one point the size of Belgium. Major General Lucky Irabor said the jihadists are now holed up in a few pockets of the Sambisa forest - where more than 200 girls kidnapped from the town of Chibok in 2014 are believed to be held - and two areas near Lake Chad, and they would be flushed out ‘within weeks’. ‘Almost all of the locations held by the Boko Haram terrorists have been reclaimed. We are talking only of a few villages and towns,’ Irabor said.

Praise: God for better military cooperation and joint operations between Nigeria and Chad. Pray for the final push into Sambisa and the release of all the hostages. (Jer.33:9)
More: www.gospelherald.com/articles/66260/20160831/nigerian-army-commander-weeks-left-boko-haram.htm

200+ people have been killed in almost daily attacks in the northern and north-eastern regions since 30 June by Boko Haram. But lesser reported violence rages farther south, claiming thousands of Christian lives. Militants among the ethnic Fulani, a predominantly Muslim and nomadic population of cattle herders, are suspected of killing Christians in the states of Plateau and Taraba in recent months. The two states form the eastern end of Nigeria's ‘Middle Belt’ (states straddling the pre-colonial line dividing Nigeria's Muslim north from its Christian south) and the most recent violence resulted from 500 Fulani cattle disappearing with suspicion falling on the Berom, an indigenous Christian population. Fulani raiding parties killed 30+ people, including a pastor of the Church of Christ in Nigeria. Cattle rustling and land disputes provide a pretext for the violence across the Middle Belt. For a report on Non-Boko Haram violence against Christians in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria go to: http://theanalytical.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Migration-and-Violent-Conflict-in-Divided-Societies-March-2015.pdf

Pray: for an end to the Hausa-Fulani Muslim oligarchy that has used colonial legacies, political policies and religious sentiments in order to conquer and dominate the Middle Belt region. (Pr.21:15)
More: www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2015/07/3924562

Even before she left the shores of Nigeria for Brazil, Mariam Usman knew that winning a medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics would be a tough call. She would not pretend to be a magician or claim perfection where there is none. Usman believes one can only reap where one sows. She was the only weightlifter representing Nigeria in Rio. She competed in the +75 category and amassed 265 kg, finishing 8th in her group. ‘It is painful to come to the Olympics and see people who are your contemporaries perform better than you; not because you lack the ability but because you were not prepared like them,’ she said, She added that training for the Rio Olympics was non-existent in Nigeria, while her counterparts from other countries have been training for three to four years. ‘Other competitors had everything they needed: training grants, competitions and access to the most modern equipment. I had nothing.’

Pray: for Nigeria and other countries giving poor support to their athletes, that they should provide adequate funding and training for those displaying extraordinary abilities and strengths in representing their home country. (Ps.59:4b)
More: www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/wont-represent-nigeria-usman/

A pastor has been hacked to death by armed Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria's central state of Nasarawa, according to World Watch Monitor (WWM). Rev Joseph Kurah, with the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Obi town, was reportedly killed on 30 June after going to his farm at around 7pm to cut down trees for roofing wood. There had been a dispute with a local Muslim earlier over ownership of the land, according to members of the church. Many local Christians suspect that the Muslim hired the Fulani herdsmen to carry out the murder. A man who identified himself as Kurah's nephew posted graphic photos on Twitter, saying, 'They attacked him on his farm, cut off his arms and legs; then they chopped his head with a machete. All I want is justice to be done. Nasarawa State and the federal government must find the killers of my uncle.' Kurah has left behind a wife and seven children.

Pray: for Kurah's wife and children, for them to experience God's presence, compassion and grace at this time. Pray for the killers to be brought to justice. (Isaiah 56:1)
More: www.christiantoday.com/article/evangelical.pastor.hacked.to.death.in.nigeria/89953.htm

  1. Nigeria: starving to death
  2. Nigeria: doing the painful thing
  3. Nigeria: pastor's wife killed after blasphemy accusation
  4. Nigeria: first missing Chibok girl found after two years

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