Reports began surfacing on Tuesday out of Mangu, Plateau state, Nigeria, of mass mob attacks on “those perceived to be Christians” and the burning down of church buildings.
Plateau Government Caleb Mutfwang imposed a 24-hour curfew on Mangu in response to “the deterioration of the security situation,” but did not specify the nature of the crisis.
The situation unfolded as American Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Abuja where he met with President Bola Tinubu to discuss American business investment opportunities in the country. The administration of President Joe Biden has prioritized attempts to strengthen relations with the Nigerian government even as human rights groups condemn the federal government for turning a blind eye to coordinated mass killings and other attacks on Christians in the country.
Plateau lies in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, the central region where the majority Christian south and majority Muslim north of the country meet. It has faced years of increasingly gruesome violent attacks on local Christian communities fueled by an organized jihad on the part of ethnic Fulani herdsmen, who, local Christians denounce, are attempting to exterminate indigenous Christian communities and take their land for Muslims.
The wreckage of a car hit by an attack led by Boko Haram members is seen surrounded by residents of the Adam Kolo district of Maiduguri on February 24, 2021. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
International Christian Concern named Nigeria the world’s most dangerous place to be a Christian in its 2023 annual report on religious freedom, citing a “20-year genocide against Christians” by Fulani terrorists as well as jihadist groups such as the Islamic State affiliate Boko Haram.
Mangu, in particular, was one of several Plateau targets of a slaughter estimated to have killed at least 195 people and resulted in the destruction of over 1,200 homes in Christian communities on Christmas Eve 2023.
“As I am talking to you, in Mangu local government alone, we buried 15 people. As of this morning, in Bokkos, we are counting not less than 100 corpses. I am yet to take stock of (the deaths in) Barkin Ladi,” Mutfwang said shortly after the terrorist siege. “It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”
The regional outlet Sahara Reporters claimed on Tuesday that a mob of suspected “herdsmen” stormed the Mangu community from bushes and began burning down Christian homes and church buildings. As part of the attack, the mob set the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) headquarters in Mangu on fire. COCIN is one of several local Christian denominations in Nigeria, marking its 120th anniversary
“As we speak, the COCIN Church near Sabon Kasuwa is on fire and they are advancing towards other churches in town,” an anonymous alleged resident told Sahara Reporters.
The outlet published footage showing mobs terrorizing Mangu and a sky full of what appeared to be smoke from a fire, but the video did not indicate what was on fire or who was being attacked.
The office of the governor of Plateau announced a 24-hour curfew in Mangu, an apparent confirmation that the area was experiencing some form of turmoil. Mutfwang’s office did not confirm if the situation was, indeed, mob attacks on Christians as Sahara Reporters documented, not commenting on the nature of the unrest at all. Mutfwang’s office said the curfew was needed “in view of the deterioration of the security situation within the area.”
“It may appear as though some people are determined to create an atmosphere of insecurity in the state, despite the government’s efforts to end the activities of terrorist elements,” the announcement of the curfew read in part, failing to offer any hints as to who “some people” was a reference to.
Nigerian media and local government officials often refer to jihadist attackers in the region as “bandits” or “herdsman,” without identifying them as being driven by Islamist ideology. In a conversation with Breitbart News in July, Father Remigius Ihyula, whose diocese is in neighboring Benue state, denounced the use of vague terms to identify the threat.
“In fact, people were even warned not to say they are Fulani herdsmen who have been causing these atrocities such that when you open the general media they are talking about bandits – bandits or they say ‘unknown gunmen’ or things like that,” Father Ihyula said, “so you read about bandits. It’s rubbish: they are Fulani men going about with cattle and with guns and killing people and the government won’t do anything about it.”
Local Nigerian news broadcasts on Tuesday quoted local officials who said that unspecific unrest had erupted in Mangu due to an “alleged misunderstanding between some cattle herders and a native.” The cattle herders in the region tend to be members of the Muslim-majority Fulani ethnic group, while the Christian communities are often smaller tribal communities with little to no representation in the Nigerian federal government.
While the local Plateau government contended with the unrest, President Tinubu met with America’s top diplomat on Tuesday. Blinken arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday after brief stops in Cabo Verde and Cote d’Ivoire, on a tour in part meant to compete with growing Chinese influence on African states. Shortly before Blinken’s arrival on the continent, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concluded his own tour a week prior; China has sent its foreign minister to Africa for the first trip of the year for the past 34 years.
“American entrepreneurs, American companies are eager to partner with and invest in Nigeria’s economy, particularly in the tech sector,” Blinken said on Tuesday, according to the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard. “Our venture capital companies are working to finance so we want to work in partnership to help drive Nigeria’s technological revolution, which is creating jobs.”
Blinken also announced on Tuesday prior to his meeting with Tinubu that the Biden administration would invest $45 million in funds to help foster “stability” in West Africa generally.
The Biden administration received widespread criticism in 2021 for removing Nigeria from the State Department’s list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC) for religious freedom, a designation that serves as a warning to dismissive governments to act to improve the situation or receive less support from Washington. As of early January, Biden has failed to restore Nigeria to that list in 2024.