Endless massacres of Christians “killed for sport” are reported in Nigeria, yet the world seems to be largely deaf to it.
While much of the world this week has celebrated the beginning – Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ – in Nigeria they are mourning the end of life – the death of more than 100 Christians – while the world remains silent.
Armed bandits went on the rampage, according to Amnesty International, in about 20 communities across central Nigeria, killing more than 140. In a country where accurate statistics are traditionally hard to come by, some sources have put the death toll at close to 200.
Christians were killed in a wide swath across the invisible line that separates the predominantly Muslim north and Christian-dominated south in the country’s Plateau State. According to various sources, Christians represent 46% of the Nigerian population.
“There was another Christmas massacre of Christians in Nigeria yesterday. The world is – silent. Unbelievable,” tweeted prominent evangelist Rev. Johnnie Moore at X, formerly Twitter.
Families buried bodies in mass graves after deadly attack in Nigeria’s central highlands region. AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
More than 52,000 Christians “have been slaughtered or hacked to death for being Christians” since 2009 in Nigeria, according to Intersociety, an Onitsha-based civil society group.
“The US mission in Nigeria condemns the recent attacks in Plateau State and expresses its condolences for the tragic loss of life,” a US State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in response to questions. Calling for accountability, the spokesman added, “We are very concerned about terrorism, and we are monitoring the situation.”
“Not a day goes by when Christians are not terrorized in west Africa in the most horrific ways imaginable,” he continued. “Christians are killed for sport, especially Christian children. For every massacre you hear about there are probably ten others happening in the shadows. The death toll routinely runs into the hundreds.”
“The whole village was burned and looted. Thousands of churches were destroyed. Children and women are hunted. Countless Christians have been kidnapped. I met a priest whose two previous churches had been burned. However, he remains in danger because he is determined to be a light in the darkness, despite it [costs] his life, and probably will.”
Aerial view of destroyed house after attack. AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
“There is a new, more deadly threat that could threaten both Christians and Muslims: the threat of jihad,” Walid Phares told Fox News Digital. Phares is a political analyst who has studied jihad in Africa and the Middle East for decades and has written several books on the topic, most notably “Confrontation: Winning the War Against Future Jihad.”
“Indoctrinated by the Muslim Brotherhood and trained by al Qaeda Africa, Boko Haram from northern Nigeria is gradually becoming the country’s ISIS,” Phares said. “They oppress moderate Muslims and kill Christians en masse. Boko Haram attacks Christians in the Highlands [State] area in the middle to remove them and seize their land.”
“The single worst place in the world to be a Christian is in west Africa, especially in parts of Nigeria,” Reverend Johnnie Moore told Fox News Digital. Moore is a former commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, president of the Christian Leaders Congress, and co-author of “The Next Jihad.”
“When ISIS was at its height in Iraq and Syria in 2015, terrorists in one state in Nigeria killed more Christians than all those killed by the ISIS caliphate in Syria and in Iraq combined,” Moore told Fox News Digital.
More than 52,000 Christians “have been slaughtered or hacked to death for being Christians” since 2009 in Nigeria, according to Intersociety. AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
“There is an economic factor in conflict, but economics is everywhere in all conflicts, so this cannot explain violence in the same way that jihadist ideology explains it. The aim of the Nigerian jihad is to drive the Christians towards the south, then to exterminate them.”
Moore added, “There have been hotspots of jihadist activity in Africa for a generation, but what we’re seeing now is these hotspots converging into a piecemeal Islamic State, exhibiting all the atrocities we witnessed in Israel on Oct. 7. Iraq and Syria 10 years ago.”
Eyewitnesses said that when the Christmas attacks began, it took up to 12 hours for help to arrive. Nigeria’s former army chief, Ty Danjuma, said this was because government forces were cooperating with the attackers.
“The military is not neutral, they are in cahoots with thugs who are killing Nigerians,” he told an applauding crowd this week. “They are [the army] facilitate their movement, they cover them. If you depend on the armed forces to stop the killings, you will die one by one.”
Security inspects the scene of a bomb explosion that may have been carried out by Boko Haram. AFP/Getty Images
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and we cannot confirm the motivation of the perpetrators. Religious freedom is an important US foreign policy priority and plays an important role in our ongoing engagement with the Nigerian government. We remain concerned about religious freedom in Nigeria, and we will continue to work with the Nigerian Government to address issues of religious freedom and ensure that all human rights are protected, including freedom of religion or belief.”
Critics say the administration should do more. Earlier this month, 29 religious freedom activists urged members of Congress to demand that the Biden administration reinstate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” in the State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report, which is a list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom. The Trump administration put Nigeria on the list in 2020, but the Biden administration removed the country from the list despite protests from human rights groups.
The Nigerian group Intersociety recently noted that more than 34,000 moderate Muslims have also been killed in Nigeria since 2009. But Phares said there may be hope for peace, but there must be action now.
“There are some Muslim communities that reject jihad and seek coexistence. After [the] Christian ethnic extermination, the jihadists [in Nigeria] will oppose moderate and reformist Muslims, such as in Afghanistan or in Iran. The US, the EU and the UN must create a platform for moderate Muslims and Christians in Nigeria and provide support to civil society. Nigeria can be fixed.”
Moore called for immediate action to stop the killings: “More can be done. Much more must be done, now. The handwriting isn’t just on the wall, it’s everywhere.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
