This report makes it clear that attacks upon Christians in Nigeria have continued with astonishing regularity for years now, with little or no effective response from the Nigerian government or military. Both frequently appear to sympathize with the attackers.
For information about Orthodox Christianity in Nigeria, see here.
For previous coverage of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria from ChristianPersecution.com, see here.
“Jihadists uproot 10m Christians, kill 43,000 others in 12 years – Intersociety,” by Richard Elesho, The News Nigeria, August 5, 2021:
About 10 million Christians have been uprooted from their bases in Northern Nigeria in the last 12 years by Islamic Jihadists.
Out of this figure, no fewer than a whopping 43,000 have been killed in at least 17,500 attacks on churches and other Christian worship programmes.
But the attacks are not restricted to only Christians. Some 29,000 moderate Muslims have also been killed by the rampaging Jihadists’ from July 2009 to July 2021.
These figures were given in a fresh report by International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law Intersociety, a respected human rights group in Nigeria.
The group released its latest report on Wednesday August 4, stressing that most of the Christian casualties were members of the Church of Brethren in Nigeria or EYN.
News Express reports that Intersociety said the 43,000 Christian deaths occurred following systematic and coordinated attacks majorly targeted at Christians by radical Islamists or Islamic Jihadists and their collaborators (‘esprit de jihad’) in the Nigerian security forces.
“The Nigerian Jihadists also sparsely and collaterally target moderate Muslims as collateral mistakes or punishments of those collaborating with the ‘unbelievers’ or in revenge for state actor attacks against their targets, or for purpose of enforcement of Islamic Sharia law or code.
The group observed that Islamic Jihadists and their ‘esprit de jihad’ in the Nigerian security forces have been responsible for at least 18,500 Christian deaths arising from enforced disappearances, or those abducted and most unlikely to return alive.
It noted that the 18,500 jihadist captivity slain Christians are out of estimated 26,000 of such deaths since 2009, put by a UN Agency in 2019 at “22,500”, adding that the total number of defenseless Nigerians abducted by the Jihadists since 2009 is put at 36,000, out of which 18,500 are Christians who are most unlikely to return alive while most of the Muslims abducted by Jihadists in Nigeria are later released unconditionally to their families, most of their Christian counterparts are killed in captivity or forcefully converted to Islam and marry thereafter.
Intersociety, further preaching religious freedom disclosed the following in its latest report: “The atrocities of the Jihadists majorly directed at Christians and their properties including homes, worship and learning centers; ancestral lands, farmlands, forests and bushes include: massacres, killings, mutilations, torture, maiming, abductions, hostage-taking, rape, girl-child defilement, forced marriages, disappearances, extortion, forceful conversions and destruction or burning of homes and sacred worship and learning centers as well as forceful occupation of farmlands, destruction and forceful harvesting of farm crops and other internationally prohibited acts.
“10 million Christians Uprooted In The North, Six Million Fled & Four Million IDPs Generated: In the same past twelve years, it was also independently found that no fewer than 30 million Christians especially in Northern Nigeria and their ethno-religion were threatened and ten million of them have been uprooted, six million forced to flee their homes or geopolitical locations to avoid being hacked to death and over four million displaced and became IDPs; and out of the four million Christian IDPs, over one million are found in Benue State and 1.3m in the ‘BAY’ States of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, excluding Taraba. Tens of thousands of Christians especially the educated and the rich from Northern Nigeria have become ‘urban refugees’, asylum seekers and refugees at international borders and foreign countries, so as to escape being hacked to death or decapitated by the Jihadists. ‘Indirect’ deaths arising from the jihadist attacks in the country in the same past twelve years are in hundreds of thousands and Christians are the most affected including being the most brutally targeted and attacked. The ‘indirect’ jihadist fatalities arose from the outlawed military and jihadist groups’ bombings and killings arising from torture and custodial killings and enforced disappearances as well as other deaths arising from starvation, lack of adequate medical facilities and treatments, etc.
“17,500 Churches And 2,000 Christian Schools Attacked; In the past twelve years or July 2009 to July 2021, at least 17,500 churches and 2,000 Christian schools and other learning centers have been attacked by the Jihadists and destroyed in part or in whole, or burned or razed down. In the past seven months of 2021, for instance, the number of churches threatened or attacked and destroyed or burned down has risen to over 300 and from July 2009 to July 2021, no fewer than 17,500 churches and 2,000 Christian schools have been affected. The number of Mosques and Islamic learning centers attacked by the Jihadists is minutely insignificant and acutely disproportionate when compared with the number of churches or Christian schools attacked. While attacks on symbols of worship by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and Jihadist Fulani Bandits are 100 percent targeted at churches and Christian schools, those perpetrated by BH, ISWAP, Ansaru and others are mostly directed at churches and Christian schools with insignificant percent directed at Mosques and Islamic learning centers…..
Read the rest here.
