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Nigeria: At least 4,000 Christians killed by Islamic extremists in 2022 alone

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – At least 4,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered by Islamic jihadists this year alone, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law attested this week, the Christian Post reports. Rights groups have estimated 50,000-80,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered by Islamic militants in the last two decades, as the Nigerian government and international community stand by and do nothing of substance to stop the slaughter.

According to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) report released this week, Fulani militant herdsmen and Islamic terror groups, including Islamic State West Africa, murdered an average of more than 400 Christians per month, or 13 reported killings a day, CP reports.

“Fulani herdsmen and Fulani (Zamfara) bandits and other armed jihadist groups that are “Nigerian government-friendly” abducted more than 2,315 Christians, out of which 1,401 were abducted between January and June, and 915 between July and October,” Intersociety said in its report.

In a similar report two months ago, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said a principal cause of the catastrophe facing Nigeria’s Christians is that nonstate actors are unleashing their violence amid “poor governance” by the country’s political leaders.

“In recent years, nonstate actor violence has increased in most parts of Nigeria, and this violence has yielded devastating humanitarian and human rights consequences…Violence that infringes on freedom of religion or belief in Nigeria includes militant Islamist violence, identity-based violence at the intersection of religion, ethnicity, and geographic heritage, mob violence against individuals accused of blasphemy, and violence impacting worship,” the USCIRF report said.

While groups such as the USCIRF and Genocide Watch have repeatedly warned of a Christian genocide in Nigeria, alarm and outrage remain at the government’s apparent inaction in the face of extreme, chronic, and widespread terrorist activity in the country. Atrocities against Christians include not only murder but also “mutilations, torture, maiming, abductions, hostage-taking, rape, girl-child defilements, forced marriages, disappearances, extortions, forceful conversions, and destruction or burning of homes and sacred worship and learning centers,” Intersociety has reported.