This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Nigeria has established, over many years, a solid reputation for allowing its Islamic radicals to persecute Christians through kidnapping, assault, torture, and murder.
A report not that long ago from Catholic News confirmed Islamist militants over the last decade or more have killed "at least 52,520 Nigerian Christians."
The violence is carried out by the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, which targets Christians and faces little pushback from the government there.
That report also noted that over the same period, 18,000 churches were set on fire, and 2,200 Christian schools were burned.
Government officials and structures, including the courts, often are complicit, through the decisions they make regarding the violence, and now a new strategy is being uncovered: a campaign to take Christian children from orphanages and indoctrinate them into Islam.
The report comes from International Christian Concern.
It has just been reported that 16 Christian children from Du Merci Orphanage were taken into government custody and have been ordered to remain there.
The case dates to 2019 when Nigerian officials raided the Christian orphanage and police officers from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) confiscated 29 children and moved them to government-run facilities.
"While in government custody, authorities split the children up, including siblings, and forced them to recite Arabic, study Islam, and attend prayers in a mosque. Since the children had Christian names, authorities reassigned them Muslim names," the report explains.
The orphanage director, Solomon Tarfa, has been fighting the government abductions since they happened, and has defeated government accusations of kidnapping and abduction that authorities leveled against him as part of their attack.
The latest anti-Christian court decision came from the Kano State High Court, where a judge said he has "too many cases" that are more important. He ordered the orphanage officials and government officials to reach a settlement outside of court.
Tarfa actually was jailed for an extended period on a government charge that a document he got from the government itself was fake, and then an appeals court acquitted him of all charges.
The report explained many of the children who arrived at Du Merci were through a friend of Tarfa, a doctor who is asked to perform abortions.
"The doctor refers these women to Du Merci, who offers to take the children and allow the mother to reclaim custody later if she chooses to do so," the report said.
Tarfa continues to insist on freedom for the 16 children remaining in government indoctrination as well as reparations for the damage by government officials, including the total destruction of the orphanage building.
