The death toll in the Nigeria Christmas massacre has now risen to 238 with more bodies still being discovered across Plateau state, according to persecuted church agency Release International.
80 communities were affected and about 20,000 Christians were driven from their homes.
The attackers, identified as Fulani militia, also set on fire their churches, corn stores and clinics. But Muslim villagers and their property were left untouched. In a pattern that has become all too familiar, the largely Christian communities received a written warning of the pending attack, telling them they ‘will not celebrate Christmas’.
Even as the bodies were being recovered another Fulani attack took place in the same area. But on that occasion no lives were lost due to the intervention of the security services.
‘Many people were killed, slaughtered like animals in cold blood,’ said Timothy Nuwan, vice president of Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN). ‘We had to run for our lives,’ said Lucy Joshua. ‘We didn’t even know where we were running to.’ She lost seven members of her family in the attack.
This is the worst massacre in Nigeria since 2018, when Fulani militia slaughtered 235 in coordinated attacks in broadly the same area.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) responded by expressing its ‘extreme disappointment that the US Department of State yet again failed to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern.’
Calling for a Congressional hearing on the issue, it said: ‘Days before Christmas, hundreds of Christians were killed in Nigeria, along with their pastor. This is just the latest example of deadly violence against religious communities in Nigeria.’
USCIRF described the violence as having a ‘deadly implication’ for religious communities in Nigeria and said it imposed a threat to religious freedom.
‘These latest attacks were timed to bring terror to Christians at Christmas,’ says Paul Robinson, CEO of Release International. ‘Many observers now regard the radicalised Fulani militia as a greater menace than terror groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province. Both organisations have sworn to turn Nigeria into an Islamic nation. And the Fulani militia, in ethnically cleansing Christians from the north and Middle Belt, are serving the same agenda.
‘Release International calls for prayer for these Christian communities and urges the government of Nigeria and its security forces to take urgent measures to safeguard these communities from attacks. The ineffectiveness of Nigeria’s security forces in protecting the country’s Christian minority is being noted around the world.’
According to the Nigerian NGO Intersociety, 52,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed by jihadists since 2009, and 18,000 churches destroyed.
