Persecution continues in Nigeria
In the first few months of 2020, Nigeria’s government has done very little to protect the religious minorities that live in the country. A tide of violence, killings and abductions caused by militant groups in the Northeast and throughout the Middle Belt continues to ravage the land.
In the past three months alone we have seen at least 766 deaths related to terror or militant activity. Christian farmers make up most of the civilian deaths in this toll, with the perpetrators being Boko Haram militants and radical Fulani militants. Over one hundred members of the Nigerian military and police forces died in a total of 130 incidents involving Boko Haram. Four people died in incidents involving Fulani militants across the seventy incidents.
Despite the large number and varied sources of these attacks, the government only deals with Boko Haram and continues to turn a blind eye on Fulani militant aggression. This is demonstrated by the number of clashes between military and militant groups.
The Nigerian government claims that there is no religious motivation for these attacks, but the facts show the opposite. During the first quarter of 2020, Fulani militants instigated at least seventy assaults on Christians and Christian villages throughout the Middle Belt of Nigeria. Their attacks have spread to nearly twenty states across Nigeria and have impacted millions of people.
Source: persecution.org
Image: flickr.com
