Nigerian imam honoured for saving Christian lives dies aged 90

A Nigerian imam who gained international recognition for saving hundreds of lives from a mainly Christian community during an outbreak of violence has died at the age of 90.

Abubakar Abdullahi had been suffering from a heart condition and was being treated in hospital, where he died on Thursday night, his son confirmed to BBC Hausa.

In 2018, the imam saw many desperate, frightened families running into his village in Plateau state, central Nigeria, and decided to risk his life to save theirs. In all, he sheltered 262 people in his home and mosque.

In recognition of what he did, Abdullahi was given one of the highest national honours and an award for religious freedom by the US State Department.

“God created mankind differently, but he wants us to live together in peace and harmony, and not harm each other,” Abdullahi was quoted as saying at the time.

The people he saved had come from a neighbouring village. They were fleeing about 300 well-armed men – suspected cattle herders, who are mostly Muslim – who started shooting sporadically and burning down their homes, the BBC reported in 2018.

Some of those who managed to escape ran towards the mainly Muslim neighbourhood nearby, where the imam lived.

The cleric immediately came to their aid.

“I first took the women to my personal house to hide them. Then I took the men to the mosque,” Abdullahi told BBC Pidgin.

When the attackers heard that the villagers had fled towards the mosque, they demanded that the imam bring out those he was hiding.

But he refused.

Along with some others in the Muslim community, he began to cry and wail, asking them to leave.

And to their amazement, the herders did leave – but then set two nearby churches on fire.

The attack was part of a wave of violence, which continues until today, in Nigeria’s central region, where farming communities and nomadic cattle herders often clash – usually over access to land and grazing rights.

Source: BBC