A shocking new report has revealed that the genocidal murder of Christians in Nigeria has reached unprecedented levels, with the number now reaching over 7,000 so far this year, more than doubling last year’s total with four months still remaining. Religious freedom advocates are begging the Donald Trump administration to increase pressure on the Nigerian government to protect Christians and other religious minorities from rampaging groups of radical Islamist jihadists.
The report, released by the Nigeria-based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), recorded a total of 7,087 Nigerian Christians killed and another 7,800 abducted between Jan. 1 and Aug 10. The number of murders represents a massive increase compared to last year, when Open Doors reported 3,100 Christians killed and over 2,000 kidnapped.
The brutal violence against Christians and other religious minorities largely began in 2009, when the jihadist group Boko Haram initiated a terror campaign in an effort to establish a caliphate in northeastern Nigeria. Other extremist groups like the Fulani herdsmen and Islamic State West Africa Province have also contributed significantly to the killing. Intersociety estimates that over the last 16 years, 189,000 civilians have been killed, including 125,000 Christians and 60,000 liberal Muslims.
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has established itself as far and away the country with the highest annual number of Christians killed in the world. Despite this, in November 2021, the Joe Biden administration removed Nigeria from the State Department’s list of Countries of Particular Concern, which catalogues the world’s most egregious violators of religious freedom. The move was notably taken just one day before then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to arrive in the country as part of a tour of the African continent.
Experts like Clint Lyons, who serves as executive director of iReach Global, say that the government of Nigeria has done little to address the crisis.
“Thirty Christians a day in Nigeria are being wiped off the face of the earth because of their faith,” he underscored during “Washington Watch” Wednesday. “And this is something that’s been a long time coming. We’ve struggled with this administration in Nigeria, the current president and the officials there. They have over and over again shown that they are a little bit uncaring about the plight of the persecuted Christians in their country.”
Lyons continued, “I was there just a few weeks ago, actually, and I met with many of our frontline workers who had just returned from some of these areas [that] that had been attacked recently. They walked into villages where the mass graves were still fresh, where the buildings were still smoldering. To call it disheartening just doesn’t capture how you feel about those types of things. I see videos from our contacts on the ground with mothers’ bodies on the ground with crying babies strapped to their backs. And I see videos of fathers who were gunned down just going about their day. This is a level of brutality I could not have ever even imagined.”
Lyons went on to urge the Trump administration to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. “The U.S. gives so much money, billions in foreign aid every year, and … Nigeria is a big recipient of that,” he pointed out. “And to just give them a blank check and say, ‘You’re not going to be held accountable for these violations in your own borders.’ It sends a terrible message, and I think a lot of where we are today is a result of that. And so … I would encourage Secretary [Marco] Rubio and President Trump to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act.”
Arielle Del Turco, who serves as Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Religious Liberty, concurred.
“These numbers are further evidence of the dangerous reality facing Christians in certain parts of Nigeria,” she told The Washington Stand. “More Christians are killed by militants and terrorists in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world. This deserves the attention of world leaders. Now is the time for the Trump administration to redesignate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern on religious freedom and consider economic penalties on the Nigerian government for effectively tolerating the rampant violence against Christians and others.”
Meanwhile, Lyons urged believers in the U.S. to take action. “I think we as Christians in America must speak with our voice and speak with our vote,” he contended. “We need to contact our local representatives. And while it’s the State Department that would designate a Country of Particular Concern, we know it’s Congress that holds the purse, and so we need to put pressure on our elected officials to ensure that this happens.”
Lyons further encouraged Christians to pray for their brethren in Nigeria, many of whom are “internally displaced” by the violence and “have nowhere to go,” as well as to give direct aid if possible.
“iReachGlobal.org is our website, and if you feel led to … there’s a giving link right on the front page where you can help us rush what we call survival kits to Nigerian believers,” he explained. “And this is food, it’s daily toiletries, other necessities. And many times if the person wants, we give them … a Bible … not only just to help them feed their souls physically, but spiritually as well.”
Originally published by The Washington Stand.
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