Deborah Peters, a Nigerian teenager whose brother and father were murdered by members of Boko Haram for being Christian decided to speak about her experience after three years of waiting. Deborah, now 15 years old shared her testimony at a Hudson Institution event on Tuesday.
Deborah was from Chibok, the same city where Boko Haram had abducted the 270 schoolgirls. "On December 22, 2011, 7:00 PM, me and my brother were at home. We started hearing gun shooting," said Peters, now a student in the United States. "So my brother called my dad and told him not to come home because they are fighting and my father told him to just forget about it."
She shared about how at around 3 am, three men entered her house and demanded that her father, who was a pastor and whose church had been lost, renounce his Christian faith. However, he refused to give up his belief in God. The terrorists decided to kill not only Deborah’s father but also her brother.
Deborah Peters’ testimony was part of a larger panel which featured Boko Haram’s religious cleansing in Nigeria. In addition to Peters, the other panelists were Nina Shea, Hudson Institute senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom and Emmanuel Ogebe, an international human rights lawyer and expert in bilateral U.S.-Nigerian relations.
Last month, the Boko Haram had abducted 270 schoolgirls from the city of Chibok to be forced to be married to the leaders of the terrorist group. With attacks on Nigeria’s Christian population becoming more and more frequent, the U.S. Department of State decided to dispatch intelligence and military to help rescue the abducted girls.
