An endless massacre of Christians “killed for sport” is reported to be taking place in Nigeria, but the world seems to largely turn a deaf ear to the matter.
While much of the world this week has been celebrating a 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 virtually silent.
Armed bandits went on a rampage, according to Amnesty International, in about 20 communities in central Nigeria, killing more than 140 people. In a country where accurate statistics are traditionally difficult to come by, some sources have put the death toll closer to 200.
Christians were killed in a wide swath along an invisible line separating the predominantly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south in the country’s Plateau state. According to multiple sources, Christians make up 46% of Nigeria’s population.
“Yesterday there was another Christmas massacre of Christians in Nigeria. The world is… silent. Simply incredible,” tweeted prominent evangelist Reverend Johnnie Moore on X, formerly Twitter.
Families bury the dead in a mass grave after deadly attacks in Nigeria’s central plateau region. AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
More than 52,000 Christians “have been massacred or hacked to death for being Christians” since 2009 in Nigeria, according to Intersociety, a civil society group based in Onitsha.
“The U.S. Mission in Nigeria condemned the recent attacks in Plateau State and expressed its deepest condolences for the tragic loss of life,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in response to a question. . The spokesperson called for accountability, adding: “We are deeply concerned about the violence and are monitoring the situation.”
“Not a day goes by that Christians in West Africa are not terrorized in the most grotesque way imaginable,” he continued. “Christians are killed for sport, especially Christian children. For every massacre we hear about, there are probably ten others that occurred in the shadows. The death toll is usually in the hundreds.”
“Entire towns are burned and looted. Thousands of churches have been destroyed. Children and women are hunted. Countless Christians have been kidnapped. I knew a pastor whose two previous churches were burned down. However, he remained in danger because he was determined to be a light in the darkness, even if that [costs] his life, and it will probably be that way.”
An aerial view of the houses destroyed after the attack. AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
“There is a new and more lethal threat that can threaten both Christians and Muslims: the threat of jihadists,” Walid Phares told Fox News Digital. Phares is a political analyst who has studied jihadists in Africa and the Middle East for several decades and has written several books on the subject, including “The Confrontation: Winning the War Against the Jihad of the Future.”
“Indoctrinated by the Muslim Brotherhood and trained by Al Qaeda Africa, the Boko Haram of northern Nigeria are gradually becoming the country’s ISIS,” Phares said. “They repress moderate Muslims and massacre Christians. Boko Haram attacks Christians on the plateau [State] area in the center to expel them and take over their lands.”
“The worst place in the world to be a Christian is West Africa, particularly parts of Nigeria,” the Rev. Johnnie Moore told Fox News Digital. Moore is a former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders and co-author of “The Next Jihad.”
“When ISIS was at its peak in Iraq and Syria in 2015, terrorists in a single Nigerian state killed more Christians than all those killed by the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq combined,” Moore told Fox News Digital.
More than 52,000 Christians “have been massacred 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 the conflict, but the economy is omnipresent in all similar conflicts, so this cannot explain the violence in the same way that jihadist ideology explains it. The goal of the Nigerian jihadists is to expel Christians to the south and then eliminate them.”
Moore added: “There have been pockets of jihadist activity in Africa for a generation, but what we are seeing now is that those pockets are converging into a fragmented Islamic State, exhibiting all the brutality we witnessed in Israel on October 7 and in Iraq. and Syria 10 years ago.”
Eyewitnesses said that when the Christmas attacks began, it took up to 12 hours for help to arrive. Former Nigerian Army Chief of Staff Ty Danjuma said this was because government troops were working with the attackers.
“The armed forces are not neutral, they are in cahoots with bandits who kill Nigerians,” he said this week to an applauding crowd. “They [the army] They facilitate their movements, they cover them. “If you depend on the military to stop the killings, you will die one by one.”
Security services inspect the site of a bomb explosion which was probably carried out by Boko Haram. AFP/Getty Images
The State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital: “No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks and we cannot confirm the motivations of the perpetrators. Religious freedom is a key U.S. foreign policy priority and plays a prominent role in our continued engagement with the Nigerian government. “We remain concerned about religious freedom in Nigeria and will continue to work with the Nigerian Government to address religious freedom issues 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 redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” in the State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report, which is a list of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world. The Trump administration included Nigeria on the list in 2020, but the Biden administration removed the country from the list despite protests from human rights groups.
Nigeria’s Intersociety group recently stated that more than 34,000 moderate Muslims have also been killed in Nigeria since 2009. But Phares said there might be hope for peace, but action must be taken now.
“There are multiple Muslim communities that reject jihadism and seek coexistence. After [the] ethnic cleansing of Christians, jihadists [in Nigeria] It will turn against moderate and reformist Muslims, as in Afghanistan or Iran. The US, EU and UN must create a platform for moderate Muslims and Christians in Nigeria and provide support to civil society. Nigeria could be fixed.”
Moore called for immediate action to stop the killings: “More can be done. More must be done now. The writing is not just on the wall, it is everywhere.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn