100 CHRISTIANS KILLED IN NIGERIA IN APRIL AND 750-800 IN FOUR MONTHS – INTERSOCIETY
Frontline rights group, the Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety), on Wednesday alleged that “festivals of Christian deaths have enveloped Nigeria leading to rampancy of burial ‘carnivals’ on weekly basis across the country especially in North-central and Northeast Regions and Southern Kaduna part of the Northwest Region.”
According to the group in a statement issued from its headquarters in Onitsha, Anambra State, “In the latest round of anti-Christian butcheries by Fulani Islamic militias of the Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Anambra State in the Southeast and Delta State in the South-south are not spared.
“In Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria; two prominent citizens – a Catholic Priest and a University Lecturer were also abducted and gruesomely murdered in March 2019 by the same Jihadist Fulani militias. By recent independent reports, Anambra East and Anambra West council areas of Anambra State are presently under siege by Fulani Islamic militias who now carry out series of abductions including abduction-for-ransom, abduction of young women-for-rape, killing of their captives in custody and unchecked encroachment on indigenous Christian communal lands for religious reasons.
“In all these, none, not even a single culprit, till date, has been arrested, investigated and put on trial or even convicted and jailed by the central Government of Nigeria.”
The statement was signed by Intersoceity’s Board Chair Emeka Umeagbalasi; Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Programme, Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esq.; Head, Int’l Justice & Human Rights Programme, Ndidiamaka Bernard, Esq.; and Head, Campaign & Publicity Department, Chidimma Evan Udegbunam, Esq.
“It must be stated clearly,” Intersociety said, “that the Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Nigeria’s version of the Sudanese Janjaweed or genocidal camel/cattle herders’ group; has remained a registered organization with the Federal Government of Nigeria till date despite its midwifery, condoning and open support for its slaves’ jihadist and terrorist activities. MACBAN also have Mr. Muhammadu Buhari as its lifetime patron. Totality of these has emboldened the group and escalated its jihadist activities which have risen alarmingly since June 2015 a month after Mr. Buhari became the President of Nigeria.
“The jihadist group is solely responsible for not less than 6,000 Christian deaths and burning or destruction of over 1,000 churches between June 2015 and December 2018. In 2018 alone, it massacred not less than 2,400 Christians and destroyed hundreds of churches. In the just past four months of 2019 (Jan-April), the jihadist group had butchered 550-600 Christians with hundreds of homes and dozens of churches torched or destroyed.”
Continuing, the statement said: “The persecution of Christians in Nigeria is both state actor and non state actor perpetrated. The present central Government of Nigeria accounts for not less than 980 Christian deaths since August 2015; killed for their religious and ethnicity belief and affiliation. Government of Nigeria is also widely believed and accused of aiding, abetting or condoning non state actor Christian persecutors (i.e. Jihadist Fulani militias) and their atrocities. The Government further down-plays, trivializes and stigmatizes the pure Christian genocide as “herders-farmers clashes” and stops at nothing in censoring and gagging media reports of the butcheries.
“Statistically, not less than 100 Christians lost their lives in Nigeria in April 2019 in the hands of Fulani Jihadists or Islamic militias. Hundreds were also injured with scores at their terminal life stages, if not already died of injuries. In the past four months of 2019, Jan-April, a total of 750-800 Christians have been targeted and killed by Nigeria’s mainstream anti Christian jihadist armed groups; out of which, Fulani Islamic militias of the MACBAN.
