Nigeria has been experiencing a “surge” in anti-Christian violence, including numerous kidnappings and murders. These are often carried out execution style, according to recent reports.
“On June 3, three Christians were just executed by the radical Islamic terrorists, ISWAP,” said Kyle Abts, executive director of the International Committee on Nigeria. “These Islamic terrorists allowed Muslims to flee, but retained the Christians for their propaganda video, which shows their execution.”
“President Tinubu claims that he is, ‘taking the battle terrorists’ but has done little to stop kidnappings and killings, which often occur on federal roads and property,” Abts said.
“Where is the outrage from the world leaders?” he asked in reference to ongoing assaults on Christians. “Where is the outrage from Nigerian leaders?”
On June 2, presumed Fulani Islamist raiders killed a pastor, his wife, and three other Christians at around midnight in Plateau state, central Nigeria, according to the Christian Post.
On June 16, armed assailants abducted Father Christian Ike — the pastor of St. Matthew’s Church in Ajalli, southern Nigeria — following a church service at an outstation of the parish.
“When they arrived at the junction of Amagu, their vehicle was stopped by armed men who came in three vehicles,” the chancellor of the local diocese, Father Lawrence Nwankwo, said in a statement. “While two people managed to escape, the attackers took the priest and another person and also stole some personal belongings of the vehicle’s occupants.”
Similarly, on June 9, Father Gabriel Ukeh was kidnapped from the rectory of Saint Thomas Parish in Zaman Dabo in Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria. He was freed 24 hours later.
“Father Ukeh once spent a month in my parish while on holiday,” said Father Moses Lorapu, the communications director for the Diocese of Makurdi in Benue State. “I had the privilege of listening to stories of the daily risk he and his parishioners face as a result of unrelenting attacks by these terrorists.”
“His kidnapping was, therefore, no news to me,” Father Lorapu told Crux, a U.S.-based Catholic online news service.
Local Christians have decried the “conspiracy of silence” over the ongoing targeted persecution of Christians in Nigeria, which involves not only Nigerian government leaders, but also members of the Biden administration in the U.S.
“The kidnappings and killings are steadily becoming normalized, and gradually, the Islamic terrorists are winning. Their bigots who are in positions of authority do not pretend about their mission to Islamize Nigeria, yet Christians who are in similar positions choose political correctness,” Father Lorapu said.
Lorapu called on leaders in the West to rethink their passive approach to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria “before the catastrophic explosion happens.”
“The silent genocide of Christians in Nigeria continues under the cloak of darkness supported and promoted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken,” Dede Laugesen, executive director of Save the Persecuted Christians, said.
“It is absurd and appalling that these souls killed simply because of their Christian faith are ignored by the very people sworn to ensure peace, security, and safety while traveling the byways,” Laugeson said. “It is a symptom, I believe, of a concerted effort to suppress news of rampant, unmitigated religious terrorism in Africa’s largest nation by population and the U. S. government and media are complicit.”
This year, the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reiterated its “extreme disappointment” that the U.S. Department of State refuses to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), despite the country repeatedly meeting the legal standard.
There is “no justification” for why the State Department did not designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, despite its own reporting and statements, USCIRF chair Abraham Cooper and Vice Chair Frederick A. Davie said.
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