Around 1,000 Christians live in the community. Everyone was shaken by the brutal attack, which claimed the lives of a pregnant woman and a one-year-old girl among many others. The mass burial cast an adverse shadow on the lives of Christians, whose Christmas celebration turned into grief and sorrow.

Members of the Irigwe tribe are predominantly Christians. They face ongoing hardship and persecution, including violence and displacement by Fulani ethnic militias, who murdered more than 2,000 Christians since 2016. 

Local leader Wuna Gado had alerted military officers at a nearby checkpoint about unusual activities but they discredited his claims. 

Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa released a report that had documented the number of casualties per year. Based on their data, more than 16,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria between 2019 and 2023. This resulted in 55,910 victims from 9,970 attacks across Nigeria, including both civilians and military. 30,880 of the murdered people were civilians. Christian victims totalled 16,769, as opposed to the 6,235 Muslim casualties. 

The report highlighted the fact that extremist Fulani herdsmen were responsible for over 55% of the attacks. It also emphasizes that phrases such as “armed herdsmen” and “cattle grazers,” can be misleading, just as the descriptions of attacks as “ethnic clashes,” “farmer-herder clashes,” or “retaliatory attacks”. The term “bandits” often refers to soldiers who execute mass kidnappings and enforce “serfdom” on communities. “A policy of concealing the religious identity of victims” is also distorting reality. Writers of the report concluded: “The Nigerian government should wake up to its responsibility of securing the lives and properties of Nigerians. Impunity has allowed targeted attacks against innocent people to continue unabatedly.”

Reverend Gideon Para-Mallam, an observatory partner and analyst, stated: “Fulani Ethnic Militia are targeting Christian populations, while Muslims also suffer severely at their hands.”

According to senior analyst Frans Vierhout: “Millions of people are left undefended. For years, we’ve heard of calls for help being ignored, as terrorists attack vulnerable communities. Now the data tells its own story.”

Source: https://www.christiantoday.com