New reports from Religious Freedom Advocates are claiming that 450 Christians, if not more, have been killed in a series of terrorist attacks on Christian villages in three north-central Nigerian states since May.
The Morning Star News, or MSN, is reporting that Christian death tolls include at least 300 in several attacks in the Plateau state spanning May 15–17. The Christian Solidarity Worldwide organization collaborates with these reports.
Christians are being purged from northern Nigeria in a genocide and Christian leaders, governments, churches & congregations across the world are largely silent. In some cases/ways they are complicit.
Why?
1,872 killed, 714 abducted in four months https://t.co/CiplwLD4zL
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) June 2, 2023
MSN has gone on to report that more than 100 Christians were killed in attacks spanning May and June in Benue state. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reported similar numbers in their statistics of the attacks on Christians in Africa, they added that 43 Christians were killed in Nasarawa state in mid-May.
According to both the MSN and CSW, Tens of thousands of Christians were displaced as whole villages, dozens of church buildings, and thousands of homes were destroyed. Precious resources like grain and water filtration were looted.
More than 52000 Christians killed in Nigeria by Islamists over the past 14 years, according to Intersociety. pic.twitter.com/hn8p7F9VfP
— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) April 18, 2023
“As our people are fleeing, herders are occupying these areas and grazing freely on our farms,” A press statement signed by Samuel Door and Ephraim Zuai of the Shitile Development Association in Benue, a religious leader in the country.
“Though due to the fear of general insecurity, it is difficult to move from village to village to gather exact statistics, hordes of lives have been horrendously eliminated in several villages across the land, such that the whole land is thrown into wailing and mourning,” the statement continued.
In a report by USCIRF released in June, the attacks were referenced as a form of ethnonationalism.
In Nigeria, for example, Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) are determined to eliminate Christianity from the country. More Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in the rest of the world combined. We need to keep our Christian pic.twitter.com/Vzz3C62bqZ
— Öbi_Jones (@Obi_Jones) August 10, 2023
“Nigeria is home to a plethora of armed actors committing violence with dire implications for religious freedom. In several regions of the country assailants have targeted ethnoreligious minorities as well as houses of worship and religious ceremonies with violence,” USCIRF claimed in their report, “Ethnonationalism and religious freedom in Nigeria,” which referenced violence spanning June 2022 through May.
“In some areas, armed actors include ethnonationalist militias seeking to wrest territorial control from government authority. Ethnonationalist fighters in Nigeria have politicized religion and attacked civilians based on ethnoreligious identity,” USCIRF wrote. “These fighters commit some of the most egregious atrocities and human rights violations of any actors in the country. This is particularly true in northcentral Nigeria, where ethnonationalist fighters affiliated with the predominantly Muslim Fulani community attack vulnerable Christian civilians with impunity.”
