Athlone is ‘heaven compared to what I went through’

While a local priest was preparing for Christmas services in Athlone and many of us were rushing around buying last-minute gifts, a horrific scene was unfolding in his home country.

Fr Innocent Sunu is calling on the international community to put pressure on the Nigerian government in light of the latest attacks by the Boko Haram group on 20 villages in the Plateau state when began on December 23, and continued into Christmas and St Stephen's Day, and which resulted in the deaths of more than 200 Christians.

Speaking recently, the cleric, who is attached to St Peter and Paul's Parish, relays the “terrifying” and “unbelievable” horrors of working in a crisis-ridden area of Northern Nigeria where the Islamic extremist group burned down his churches, his car, his house and left him fearing for his life on a daily basis.

Fr Sunu is sitting in his home in Battery Road, Athlone, far from the devastation he describes, horrors that have largely ignored by the world's media in recent times and by those in power.

The priest, whose mother, seven sisters and one brother are still back home, was based for almost five years in the St Denis parish in the town of Madagali in northern Nigeria, close to the border of Niger, Cameroon and Chad and one of the areas worst affected by Boko Haram, While Nigeria is a mineral rich country, corruption is rife and people struggle to meet their basic needs.

“It's not just terrifying, it's unbelievable. I always say to whoever wants to hear – I don't know why I've alive today because I could have been killed over and over – because I've seen people killed in my presence. I have seen people's throat slit in my presence. I have seen women throw away their babies because they have to escape,” Fr Innocent recalls.

“They came for us, what I mean they came for us, they didn't just come to burn down our houses and our churches – they came to kill us,” he says starkly, adding that he knows the sound of every gun at this stage, just from his own personal experience.

“It was horrible. It was dehumanising and it was unimaginable because if you haven't been to a crisis area or you haven't experienced what war is, don't ever pray for it and that's why we always pray for peace and peace is all we need in the world.”

In the agrarian society of the north, he says there has been longstanding tensions between Muslims and Christians about land ownership, and the Muslim tribe wants to take possession of the land that belongs to the native people who are 90% Catholic. Boko Haram also wants a full Islamic state and is opposed to anything considered western, like education.

Since 2009, Boko Haram has devastated the northern part of the country “physically, mentally, psychologically, spiritually”, the Athlone priest explains, and aside from destroying churches, clinics, schools, etc, it has killed thousands of people and left thousands others displaced in refugee camps or in neighbouring countries.

While there had been relative peace recently, Christmas time was a return to horrors as Christians were targetted on an important religious occasion for them leaving survivors living in fear.

Fr Innocent relays a story where he wrote an article to encourage the government to rebuild a bridge in his town destroyed by the Boko Haram, because in rainy season, beginning in April, it overflowed and people could not pass. He believes speaking out “cost him a lot”.

Imagine a daily scene where farmers are escorted to the fields by soldiers from the national army to work each day, and brought home again in the afternoon. He too, had this type of security joking that he was a “big man in a small way”.

“I had five soldiers who were guarding me... If I am celebrating the mass the soldiers are behind me. If I am going out of the town I have a Toyota Hilux van behind me and in front.

“Whenever there was a feeling of an attack coming, the soldiers would come and surround my house or take me out of town, so I was protected like a celebrity, but a celebrity for Jesus!”

However, if there was an ambush by Boko Haram the soldiers left to defend the area, and this meant he was on his own. He recalls climbing a tree in khaki uniform to escape an attack and on another occasion running with local people up the mountain to escape being shot where they remained for several days sleeping on the ground.

Asked how difficult it is to minister to the people when you're going through traumatic times yourself, Fr Innocent replies: “You discover that you have thousands of people who look up to you, so at that moment you are not thinking of yourself, you are thinking of the thousands of people who are looking up to you because these are the same people who come to tell you 'Father the enemies are around let us run'. And in some cases you are running with them when you are tired and they will carry you."

But for the strength of his bishop and the passion of other priests, many, including Fr Innocent, would have left the church given the horrors they have lived through.

Fr Innocent wonders where he would be but for the two Kevins or the “miracles of my life” as he calls them – Fr Kevin O'Hara in Nigeria and Bishop Kevin Doran for bringing him to Ireland with the permission of his own bishop following trauma counselling.

“Look at me now, living in Athlone in peace. If not for Bishop Kevin I would probably be dead or lost. I thank him he accepted me and said there is work to do,” he smiles. “Bishop Kevin remains my saviour.”

“Sometimes, I wake up in the night in this house, and I look around and I say to myself 'Am I really living here?' Because for me, it's heaven compared to what I went through and what I've experienced.

Fr Innocent now finds joy in the little things - praying, saying Mass, enjoying food and good books, sleep, walking and meeting with local people.

“Athlone has been extraordinary to me. I am one person who does not want sympathy, I don't like anyone saying to me 'Oh, he's suffered'. .. I love to hang around people and enjoy life in the moment.

“This community, this town of Athlone has accepted me wholeheartedly. The people are excellent and I mean if I pass them, I will have to pass them to go to heaven because I go around and see people in the shops, pubs, in hotels are they are all asking 'How are you Fr Innocent?' Everyone is saying hello.”

The community has helped him to recover and heal by caring him for him and making him feel loved.

His fervent wish is that people of Athlone appreciate what they have and “appreciate the peace they have, the food, the water and everything they have”. “People in Ireland need to know they are too blessed. Life is a joy, be friendly, be nice, be happy.”