Over 52,000 Nigerian Christians killed, 14 million forced into exile
Sopuruchi Onwuka
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has declared that unrestrained Islamic insurgency and banditry in Nigeria have led to killing of over 52,000 Christians across the country.
The Nigeria-based nonprofit group also stated more than 14 million Christians have been forced to flee Nigeria following helpless insecurity situation mainly in the Christian dominated axes of the country.
The Oracle Today reports that Nigeria has since 2009 suffered the bloodiest militant assault amidst weak and ineffective security system. School girls have been routinely abducted en masse and married off to militants and bandits. Secondary schools and universities have been routinely shut down and abandoned after bandit attacks. Innumerable passengers have been killed along highways and railways.
Weakness of the security agencies to confront and arrest the gun totting bandits led to impunity mass displacement of communities in the country.
According to a letter seeking international intervention by Intersociety, some 18,000 churches and 2,200 schools had been attacked as mass killing of Christians persisted in the country.
According to the Pew Research Center, Nigeria has the largest Christian population of any country in Africa, with over 80 million believers. But the Christian population which occupies the eastern axis of the country has been under intense attacks by terrorist groups that appeared to enjoy political protection.
Christian hubs like Borno, Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and Imo states have since turned to killing fields in the past nine years when former President Muhammadu Buhari held sway in power. And the situation threatens to continue under incumbent President Bola Tinubu, another Moslem from the same party.
Following to outcry by Intersociety, human right groups in the United States are calling on the Biden administration to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (“CPC”) for the brutal killing of over 200 Christians last month.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, two dozen interest groups, led by Advancing American Freedom and including Alliance Defending Freedom, the Hudson Institute, former Ambassador Sam Brownback and former defense and national security officials, scolded the State Department for its “refusal” to designate Nigeria as a CPC – calling the lack of action “unconscionable.”
“Less than two weeks ago, almost 200 Nigerian Christians became martyrs while celebrating Christmas. According to one account, these Christians were ‘killed for sport.’ Just weeks earlier, the Christian Association of Nigeria received a letter threatening them against celebrating Christmas,” the letter sent Monday states.
“The international religious freedom community stands outraged at your refusal to hold these acts of evil to account,” it continues.
On Jan. 4, Blinken announced that he’d designated a series of countries, including Iran and Russia, as a CPC, but Nigeria was notably left off the list.
The letter says that “within hours” of Blinken’s announcement, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called for a congressional hearing, and international religious freedom advocates “publicly criticized” his decision.
USCIRF is a federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and consists of commissioners who are appointed by the president and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders.
“The eyes of the world look to the United States as a beacon of hope and freedom. Religious freedom is grounded in the American founding, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and quintessential to what it means to be an American,” the letter states.
“When the United States stands silent as evil runs amok, the world takes notice,” it concludes.
