Angelus News | February 9, 2024 | Vol. 9 No

isn’t the theology of same-sex relationships
or any of the other topics that
often loom so large in Catholic debate
in affluent societies.
Instead, it’s what a growing chorus
of observers describe as a “genocide”
directed against Christians in a country
that has the largest mixed Muslim/
Christian population in the world.
According to some estimates, Nigeria
now accounts for almost 90% of all
Christians martyred worldwide each
year.
In its latest annual report, Aid to the
Church in Need, a papally sponsored
foundation supporting persecuted
Christians, reported
that more than 7,600 Nigerian
Christians had been
murdered between January
2021 and June 2022.
Nigeria is merely an
especially urgent case of
a broader phenomenon.
According to an annual
report of “Open Doors,”
an ecumenical watchdog
group on anti-Christian
persecution, more than 365
million Christians in the
world, that is 1 in 7, faced
high levels of persecution
for their faith as of late
2023.
The threat to Christians
in Nigeria has been clear
for some time, but it’s
been driven home of late
in the wake of Christmas
massacres in the country’s
Plateau State that claimed
the lives of more than 300
Christians.
The assaults have continued
into the new year. On Jan. 4, Boko
Haram insurgents killed a pastor and
at least 13 members of his Church,
according to local news site Sahara
Reporters. Pastor Elkanah Ayuba was
the leader of a Church of Christ in
Nations congregation.
While the violence is sometimes
characterized as more social and economic
than religious, pitting members
of the Fulani ethnic group who are
herdsmen against Igbo and Yoruba
farmers and pastors, religion is inevitably
part of the picture given that the
Fulani are largely Muslim while their
victims are mostly Christian.
In addition, there’s a clear pattern
in the violence of targeting Christian
churches, schools, residences, and
other facilities.
At least 52,000 Christians have been
killed in Nigeria since 2009, according
to the International Society for Human
Rights and the Rule of Law (“Intersociety”),
an international monitoring
group tracking genocide in Nigeria.
Last year, Fulani herdsmen were
responsible for the deaths of at least
3,500 Christians, the group said.
The same report published in April
also asserted that 18,000 Christian
churches and 2,200 Christian schools
have been set ablaze, and around
34,000 moderate Muslims also have
been killed in Islamist attacks.
Within the same period, at least 707
Christians were kidnapped, out of
which the Northern Nigerian Niger
State recorded more than 200 abductions,
including the March 14 abduction
of more than 100 Christians in
Adunu. Roughly 5 million Christians
have been displaced and forced into
Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)
camps within Nigeria and refugee
Flowers lie on caskets during a funeral Mass in the
parish hall of St. Francis Xavier Church in Owo,
Nigeria, June 17, 2022. The Mass was for some of the
40 victims killed in a June 5 attack by gunmen during
Mass at the church. | OSV/TEMILADE ADELAJA,
REUTERS
camps at regional and sub-regional
borders, according to Intersociety.
The director of the Christian-inspired
human rights organization said the
genocide of Christians in Nigeria is
being carried out with the complicity
of the government.
“The government of Tinubu is part
of the butchering machinery,” said
Emeka Umeagbalasi, a criminologist
and grassroots human rights and
Democracy campaigner, referring to
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who
took office in late March.
“The Fulani jihadi rose to power under
the Buhari administration and was
able to take control of everything,” he
said, asserting that Tinubu is set to perpetuate
that heritage. The reference
was to Nigeria’s previous government
under former President Muhammadu
Buhari.
Umeagbalasi said that international
pressure should be brought to bear on
February 9, 2024 • ANGELUS • 11