"They Made Me Watch": Nigerian Mother Survives Boko Haram Horror That Killed Her Family
Maiduguri, Nigeria - Catherine Ibrahim, a Nigerian Christian woman, has shared her harrowing account of surviving Boko Haram atrocities that claimed her husband's life and left her separated from her children for three years, in an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.
Catherine described how Boko Haram gunmen invaded her village in northeast Nigeria and forced her to witness her husband's execution. As insurgents entered the village, she ran home to rescue her children—Salome, then aged seven, and five-year-old Daniel—but by the time she arrived, the fighters were already there.
"Then, one of the insurgents savagely dragged me, so I could witness my husband's death," Catherine said. "They butchered my husband mercilessly, and they made sure that I saw it all. I can't forget the fear in his eyes. I don't want to say more than this. I hate to remember."
Helpless as her children were taken into captivity by Boko Haram, Catherine set off in search of them, only to be seized herself by the terrorist group.
During her captivity, Catherine prayed to God in her local language.
She discovered that her guard also spoke this language and that they were from the same tribe. She believes the guard played a part in her eventual release from the camp.
Following her release, Catherine's mother-in-law nursed her back to health.
Three years after the attack, she was reunited with her children in a displacement camp run by the Catholic diocese of Maiduguri.
"Now that I am back with my children and mother-in-law, my joy knows no bounds," Catherine said. "But my husband's death—and having to watch it—will haunt me forever."
Catherine has undergone six months of physiotherapy but has still not fully regained the use of her hands due to injuries sustained during her ordeal.
In separate attacks documented by Christian organizations, Rebecca Maska was shot and bled for three hours until help arrived during a Christmas Eve massacre in Plateau State. Her son had his hand chopped off with a machete before escaping the attackers.
Magit Macham dragged his wounded brother to safety and hid overnight until the attackers moved on during the same series of coordinated attacks spanning Christmas Eve 2023 in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State.
An estimated 295 Christians were killed in that wave of well-coordinated attacks, with the dead mostly women and children, including physically challenged people who were unable to run and were burnt alive.
The attacks by Fulani Islamist terror groups began on the evening of December 23 and finished on the morning of Christmas Day 2023.
Twenty-five remote and widely scattered villages were targeted. In total, more than 1,500 homes were burnt, eight churches destroyed, many hundreds of people injured, and 30,000 displaced.
Grace Godwin was preparing Christmas Eve dinner when her husband burst in with news from the neighboring village, ordering her and the children into the fields.
"These attacks have been recurring," Macham told Reuters. "They want to drive us out of our ancestral land."
Boko Haram, also known as the Islamic State in West Africa, has been waging an insurgency in northeast Nigeria since 2009. Fulani militants, a separate but related threat, have increasingly targeted Christian farming communities across Nigeria's Middle Belt with machetes and AK-47 rifles.
According to Open Doors' World Watch List 2025, Nigeria ranks as the sixth most difficult country to be a Christian, with 82 percent of Christians killed for their faith globally occurring in Nigeria between October 2022 and September 2023.
A report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) found that between 2009 and 2023, at least 52,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria, 18,500 were abducted and are unlikely to have survived, and more than 20,000 churches and Christian schools were attacked.
In north-east Nigeria, Aid to the Church in Need has prioritized emergency aid for people caught up in Boko Haram atrocities, as well as providing pastoral support.
THE CRUSADERS OPINION
They dragged Catherine to watch. They wanted her to see her husband butchered. They wanted the fear in his eyes burned into her memory forever. Then they took her children.
This is what Boko Haram does to Christians in Nigeria. This is what Fulani militants do on Christmas Eve. They don't just kill. They torture. They terrorize. They make mothers watch husbands die. They chop off children's hands with machetes. They burn families alive in their homes.
Catherine lost three years searching for her children. Three years wondering if they were alive. Three years carrying the image of her husband's murder. Her hands still don't work right from what they did to her.
Rebecca Maska bled for three hours while her son ran with his hand chopped off. Families hid in fields on Christmas Eve while militants burned their villages. 295 Christians murdered in one night. Women and children burnt alive because they couldn't run.
Fifty-two thousand Christians killed since 2009. Eighty-two percent of Christians murdered for their faith worldwide die in Nigeria. These aren't statistics. These are our brothers and sisters hunted like animals in their own country.
The Nigerian government does nothing. President Tinubu calls reports of Christian genocide "false claims." Tell that to Catherine. Tell that to Rebecca's son missing a hand. Tell that to the 30,000 displaced on Christmas 2023.
Boko Haram and Fulani militants operate with impunity. They attack. They murder. They burn churches. They kidnap children. No arrests. No prosecutions. No justice. The government either can't stop them or won't stop them.
Meanwhile, Western media stays silent. Nigerian Christians die by the thousands and we hear nothing. If this happened to any other religious group, the world would erupt. But Christians? Silence.
Catherine's children were seven and five when terrorists took them. She got them back three years later. How many Nigerian mothers never get that reunion? How many children watch parents murdered? How many families burn alive in churches?
This is genocide.
Call it what it is.
Systematic extermination of Christians in Nigeria while the world looks away.
TAKE ACTION: STAND WITH NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS
Aid to the Church in Need: https://acnuk.org
Open Doors: https://www.opendoorsuk.org
Barnabas Aid: https://www.barnabasaid.org
International Christian Concern: https://www.persecution.org
DEMAND:
- Emergency aid for Nigerian Christian survivors
- International pressure on Nigeria's government
- Protection for Christian communities
- Prosecution of Boko Haram and Fulani militants
- Media coverage of Christian genocide
Pray for Catherine, Rebecca, and thousands of Nigerian Christians surviving unimaginable horror. Support organizations providing emergency relief. Share their stories. Make the world care.
