The mass slaughter of Christians across parts of Nigeria, violence which has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced over two million people, is almost entirely fuelled by Islamist extremism.
This is the stark keynote conclusion of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG FoRB)’s new report Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide? Three Years On, which has just been launched in parliament. It features contributions from a range of 47 Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), think tanks, journalists, academics and charities.
Each was asked to rank the significance of a range of factors behind the violence which currently targets freedom of religious belief in Nigeria. The factors included poverty, climate change, ethnic tensions and religious extremism. More than half considered religious extremism the biggest driver of the violence.
Although religious conflicts date back many decades, they have rapidly intensified since Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and radicalised members of the Fulani people have infiltrated the region. Although people of all faiths have been affected by the violence, figures from the Observatory for Religious Freedom show Christians in the middle belt of the country are proportionately more likely to be killed by a factor of over 7:1. Open Doors – one of the groups who contributed to the report – records that last year 5,950 Christians were killed for their faith in Nigeria – or 89% of those killed for their faith anywhere in the world.
Henrietta Blyth of Open Doors UK and Ireland commented: ‘For years now, academics, politicians and major western NGOs in the west have downplayed the role of Islamist extremism in this slaughter. Instead, they have focused on ethnicity or climate change. But when I speak to women or men whose families have been butchered or villages burned down, they are clear. They know who is persecuting them and why; why are we erasing their voices?’
