It was a sunny Sunday in Maikori, a small farming town in the south of Nigeria’s Kaduna state. Rev. Denis Sani, the pastor of the evangelical church Winning All as well as a leader of a 50-man civilian watch unit, was giving a sermon.
A few minutes before noon on June 5, Sani got news he dreaded. A band of 200 armed terrorists had swarmed the nearby town of Dogon Noma, which meant Maikori was next.
After dismissing the congregation of 400 worshippers, he mobilized his team at the northern entrance of the thickly forested town where the terrorists were expected to storm in on motorbikes….