Festus Iyorah is a Nigeria Freelance Journalist and photographer covering Global Health, Conflicts, Religion, Social Innovation, Gender Equality, Tech and Development. His works has been published on Aljazeera, Guardian (UK), Catholic Herald (UK), Mail and Guardian, Newsdeeply, National Catholic Reporter, Ozy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and World Politics Review among others.
Posts By This Author
The Interfaith Approach to Longstanding Violence in Nigeria
Image via Festus Iyorah.
Tit-for-tat killings had started between Christians and Muslims in Jos. In Muslim-dominated areas, Muslims roamed the streets and singled out Christians. In Christian-dominated areas, the Christians retaliated with killings Muslims. Cars, houses, and churches were burned to the ground.
How Young Nigerians are Challenging Sexual Assault in the Church
A protester hoisting a placard during Nigeria's ChurchToo Protest in Lagos, Nigeria. Credit: ChurchToo movement.
Amid drizzle, the protest started featuring young Nigerians, mostly Christians dressed in a uniform white shirt like Monago’s. They spilled across both sides of a major road reducing traffic almost to a snarl. To avoid protesters from gaining entrance into the church, COZA beckoned on the Nigerian police who gated the church entrance, a common strategy mostly deployed by authorities to intimidate protesters in Nigeria. But the protesters, undeterred, defied police on standby, chanting and hoisting placards, some of which read: “Pastor Step down”; “Say no to rape in the church.” Monago’s reads: “By attending COZA you are enabling rape.”
Christians Struggle with Persecution in Northern Nigeria
A Christian IDP camp. Image via Festus Iyorah.
In northern Nigeria, the epicenter of insurgency and ethno-religious violence, Christians are the minority and have experienced widespread persecution from terrorists who share the extremist view of creating an Islamic state across northern Nigeria.