The General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye led a protest against worsening insecurity in Nigeria on 2 Feb, 2020. COURTESY PHOTO
A Nigerian human rights organization has published a new report saying over 1,200 Christians have been killed across the West African country in the first six months of 2020 covering January to June.
The Intersociety for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law attributed the killings to Islamist militants and members of the predominantly Muslim Fulani group.
The report pins 390 of the deaths to radical Islamist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, both of which are linked to ISIS.
Some 812 deaths were attributed to Fulani herdsmen who have targeted Christian farming communities.
“Thousands of defenseless Christians who survived being hacked to death have also been injured and left in mutilated conditions with several of them crippled for life,” the report said.
“Hundreds of Christian worship and learning centers have been destroyed or burnt; likewise thousands of dwelling houses, farmlands and other properties belonging to Christians.”
While some groups have labeled the Fulani attacks as part of a dispute over land and resources, the International Society dismisses this theory and argues that Christians are being specifically targeted.
“All the areas under Jihadist Herdsmen attacks are Christian communities, as to date,” it said.
“There are no pieces of evidence anywhere showing killing of Muslims and taking over of their lands, farmlands and houses or destruction or burning of Mosques by the Jihadist Herdsmen.”
The report warns of a “rapid” rise in the number of girls and women being abducted in Nigeria. The organization says that these abducted women “hardly” ever escape, and some are forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man, while others are used as sex slaves.
“In other words, Nigeria’s genocidal and atrocious Jihadists including Jihadist Herdsmen and Boko Haram/ISWAP have rapidly increased their rate of abduction of the referenced females, both legally married and unmarried. Such abducted women hardly return when abducted,” it says.
Open Doors ranks Nigeria 12th in the world for the most severe persecution of Christians.
Right now, reports show that Nigeria is half Christians and half Muslims. Christians dominate the south, while Muslims make up the majority of the north and middle belt.
Intersociety also earlier estimated that over 2,000 churches and Christian worship centers have been burned since June 2015, with Fulani herdsmen being responsible for about 1,500 and Boko Haram accounting for 500, according to the Christian Post.
The news source observes that Intersociety’s claim that most of the people killed by Boko Haram are Christian contradicts data given out by Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari in early February.
In an op-ed, Buhari stated that “90 percent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims.” Buhari claimed that the “now-failing terrorists have targeted the vulnerable, the religious, the non-religious, the young and the old without discrimination.”
However, weeks later, a member of the Nigerian government, Minister of Information Alhaji Lai Mohammed, acknowledged that terrorists are focusing their attacks on Christians, noting that in the past, that was not the case.
“They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos,” he said while distancing the perpetrators from Muslims and noting that Muslims have also been victimized.
Reporting by Christian Today, The Christian Post.
