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Published December 30, 2023, 7:18 PM ET
There are reports that there is a never-ending massacre of Christians being “killed for sport” in Nigeria, but the world seems largely deaf to the issue.
While much of the world celebrates a beginning this week – Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ – Nigeria is mourning the end of life – the deaths of more than 100 Christians – while the world remains virtually silent.
According to Amnesty International, armed bandits ran amok in around 20 communities in central Nigeria, killing more than 140 people. In a country where accurate statistics have traditionally been difficult to obtain, some sources put the death toll at around 200.
The Christians were killed across the board along an invisible line that separates the predominantly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south in the country's Plateau State. According to several sources, Christians make up 46% of Nigeria's population.
“Yesterday there was another Christmas massacre of Christians in Nigeria. The world is – silent. Simply incredible,” tweeted leading evangelist Rev. Johnnie Moore on X, formerly Twitter.
Families bury the dead in a mass grave after deadly attacks in Nigeria's central plateau. AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
According to Intersociety, a civil society group based in Onitsha, more than 52,000 Christians have been “slaughtered or hacked to death because they were Christians” in Nigeria since 2009.
“The U.S. Mission in Nigeria condemned the recent attacks in Plateau State and expressed deep condolences for the tragic loss of life,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in response to a question. The spokesman called for accountability, adding: “We are deeply concerned about the violence and are monitoring the situation.”
“Not a day goes by that Christians in West Africa are not terrorized in the most grotesque ways imaginable,” he continued. “Christians are killed for sport, especially Christian children. For every massacre you hear about, there are probably ten more that took place in secret. The death toll is regularly in the hundreds.”
“Entire villages are burned down and looted. Thousands of churches were destroyed. Children and women are hunted. Countless Christians were kidnapped. I met a pastor whose two previous churches had burned down. Yet he remained in danger because he was determined to be a light in the darkness, even if he was [costs] his life, and it probably will.”
An aerial view of destroyed houses after the attack. AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
“There is a new, deadlier threat that can threaten both Christians and Muslims: the threat of jihadists,” Walid Phares told Fox News Digital. Phares is a political analyst who has studied jihadists in Africa and the Middle East for several decades and has written several books on the subject, most notably “The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad.”
“Indoctrinated by the Muslim Brotherhood and trained by al-Qaeda Africa, the Boko Haram from northern Nigeria are gradually becoming the country’s IS,” Phares said. “They oppress moderate Muslims and massacre Christians. Boko Haram attacks Christians in the plateau [State] area in the middle to drive them out and confiscate their land.”
“The worst place in the world to be a Christian is in West Africa, particularly parts of Nigeria,” Rev. Johnnie Moore told Fox News Digital. Moore is a former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders and co-author of “The Next Jihad.”
“When ISIS was at its peak in Iraq and Syria in 2015, terrorists killed more Christians in a single state in Nigeria than all the people killed by the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq combined,” Moore told Fox News Digital.
According to Intersociety, more than 52,000 Christians have been “slaughtered or hacked to death because they were Christians” in Nigeria since 2009. AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
“There is an economic factor in the conflict, but economics is omnipresent in all similar conflicts, so this cannot explain the violence in the same way that jihadist ideology explains it.” The target of the Nigerian jihadists is the Christians to drive them south and then destroy them.”
Moore added: “There have been hotspots of jihadist activity in Africa for a generation, but what we are seeing now is that these hotspots are coalescing into a fragmented Islamic state that has all the brutality that we saw in Israel on October 7th and beyond.” “Iraq and Syria 10 years ago.”
Eyewitnesses reported that at the start of the Christmas attacks it took up to twelve hours for help to arrive. Former Nigerian army chief of staff Ty Danjuma said this was because government troops were working with the attackers.
“The armed forces are not neutral, they are collaborating with the bandits who are killing Nigerians,” he told an applauding crowd this week. “She [the army] facilitate their movements, they cover them. If you depend on the armed forces to stop the killings, you will die one by one.”
Security inspects the site of a bomb explosion believed to have been carried out by Boko Haram. AFP/Getty Images
The State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital: “No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks and we cannot confirm the perpetrators' motivations.” Religious freedom is a central priority of U.S. foreign policy and plays a prominent role in our continued engagement the Nigerian government. We continue to have concerns about religious freedom in Nigeria and will continue to work with the Nigerian government to address religious freedom issues and ensure that all human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, are protected.”
Critics say the government should do more. Earlier this month, 29 religious freedom activists called on members of Congress to demand that the Biden administration redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” in the State Department's International Religious Freedom Report, which lists the world's worst religious freedom violations contains. The Trump administration had placed Nigeria on the list in 2020, but the Biden administration removed the country from the list despite protests from human rights groups.
The Nigerian Intersociety group recently stated that more than 34,000 moderate Muslims have also been killed in Nigeria since 2009. However, Phares said there was hope for peace but action had to be taken now.
“There are several Muslim communities that reject jihadism and strive to live together. After [the] Ethnic cleansing of Christians, jihadists [in Nigeria] will turn against moderate and reformist Muslims, as in Afghanistan or Iran. The US, EU and UN must create a platform for moderate Muslims and Christians in Nigeria and support civil society. Nigeria could be fixed.”
Moore called for immediate action to stop the killings: “More can be done. More needs to be done now. The handwriting isn’t just on the wall, it’s everywhere.”
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