Christian Watchdog Asks Believers to Pray for Nigerian Teen Leah Sharibu, Held Hostage for 4 Years
02-21-2022 Andrea Morris
Saturday. Feb. 19 marked four years since Leah Sharibu was abducted by the radical Islamic group Boko Haram.
The terrorists have not freed the teenage girl, who was 14 at the time of her kidnapping, because she has refused to abandon her Christian faith.
As CBN News has reported, nearly 50 armed men stormed a school in Dapchi, a town in Nigeria’s Yobe state, in February of 2018 and left with 110 young girls.
In the days that followed, five of the girls died while in captivity, and 104 were released one month after the attack.
Boko Haram would not let Sharibu go unless she renounced her faith and converted to Islam. She would not give in to the demands of her captors and was declared a “slave for life.”
The Nigerian government, though outwardly sympathetic to Sharibu’s situation, has seemed to do little to rescue her.
International Christian Concern reports that Sharibu was possibly married off to one of her abductors and has two children, although it is difficult to know for certain. Updates on her welfare come from survivors who have escaped or been released by Boko Haram.
Shortly after the abduction, the girl’s father, Nata Sharibu, spoke out about crime against his daughter.
“My daughter is alive but they said she is a Christian and that is why they cannot release her,” Nata told RayPower 100.5 FM, a Nigerian radio station. “They gave her the option of converting in order to be released but she said she will never become a Muslim.”
Nata said he was glad for the other parents whose daughters were freed, and added: “I am also happy too because my daughter did not denounce Christ.”
Over the years, Christians and human rights advocates have expressed their support for Sharibu, including a prayer vigil that was held on her 17th birthday.
“She chose faith over freedom when it would have been so easy to cave,” said Dede Laugesen, executive director of Save the Persecuted Christians, a grassroots group that raises awareness of worldwide Christian persecution.
International Christian Concern, a Christian watchdog organization, is asking for Christians to pray for Sharibu and her family, including her two young children. Pray that the Lord will grant wisdom to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian government. Pray that Leah will be released and that the Lord will ease the burdens of the trauma that she and her family have experienced. Pray for the healing of Nigeria, for the end of mass abductions and killings, and for the Lord to transform the hearts of those who persecute the church.
Boko Haram, which in local Hausa language means, “Western education is forbidden” is a radical Islamic group that openly calls for Sharia, or Islamic law to be instituted in the African country.
Persecution in Nigeria is brutally violent with many Christians living under the constant threat of attack from Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Fulani militants, and criminals who kidnap and murder with few consequences.
Nigeria ranks as the 7th worst country in the world for Christian persecution on Open Doors USA’s 2022 World Watch List.