The Nigerian government has been accused of being in denial about the scale of anti-Christian violence conducted by Islamic militants.
The plight of Nigeria’s Christian community has been taken up by US President Donald Trump, who in late October said he would be designating Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern”.
Trump proceeded to escalate matters in dramatic fashion with a series of airstrikes on Christmas Day, targeting Islamic militants in northwest Nigeria.
While the Nigerian government played a role in coordinating the strikes, it has denied Trump’s claim that, “They’re [the militants] killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen.”
Open Doors, ranks Nigeria as the 7th worst persecutor of Christians in the world, despite the fact that Christians account for around half the population.
More Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in all other countries around the world combined. Open Doors estimates that this year around 3,100 Christians have been killed in Nigeria, out of 4,476 killed worldwide. The Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law estimates that as many as 7,000 have been killed this year.
In response to the violence, Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, last month announced a national security emergency and pledged to double the size of the country’s police force. Tinubu also suggested that Muslims were being killed by Christians, although there is no evidence that this occurs in anything but the most isolated of incidents.
Christian leaders have denounced attempts to portray the violence as a “social conflict” between Muslim herdsmen and Christian farmers over land and resources.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the Rev John Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said, “There is religious persecution in northern Nigeria and I can tell the Nigerian government that the reason why we are not addressing it is because we are living in denial.
“If you are denying, it is as if you are supporting the man who is killing us.”
Tiffany Barrens, global advocacy director for Open Doors International, told the paper, “Ten years ago, it was more about land and resources. What we have seen increasingly is that the religious element has become more apparent. I think people are afraid to recognise the religious element, because they are afraid it will lead to more division.”
