Genocide in Nigeria

Swept under the rug for more than a year, one of the Biden administration's "sins of omission" are making headlines again. On November 17, 2021, the State Department inexplicably removed Nigeria from its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC list). These are nations that either engage in, or tolerate, violations of religious freedom. The Biden State Department removed Nigeria from the list despite strong objections from several human rights organizations, many of which insist that Christians are even undergoing a genocide in Nigeria.

Many observers at the time slammed the State Department for its decision to let Nigeria literally get away with mass murder. Christian Solidarity International said:
"The State Department's decision to de-list a country where thousands of Christians are killed every year reveals Washington's true priorities....Removing this largely symbolic sign of concern is a brazen denial of reality and indicates that the U.S. intends to pursue its interests in western Africa through an alliance with Nigeria's security elite, at the expense of Christians and other victims of widespread sectarian violence.... If the U.S. CPC list means anything at all—an open question at this point—Nigeria belongs on it.”

Even for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan federal commission that monitors and reports on religious freedom to the U.S. government and Congress, the Biden administration's decision to delist Nigeria was "inexplicable," a reflection of "turning a blind eye" to "particularly severe religious freedom violations.”

The reason many were shocked is that in Nigeria, Christians are being butchered — purged — at an alarming rate.

According to an August 2021 report, since the Islamic insurgency began in earnest in July 2009 — first at the hands of Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist organization, and later by the Fulani, Muslim herdsmen also motivated by jihadist ideology — 43,000 Christians were murdered, and 18,500 were abducted (never to be seen again and assumed to be dead). During the same time-frame, approximately 17,500 churches and 2,000 Christian schools were torched and destroyed.

Since the publication of that August 2021 report, things have only gotten worse. According to the latest figures, in 2022 alone, 90% of all Christians killed for their faith around the world — 5,014 Christians to be exact — were slaughtered in Nigeria. On average, that is 14 Christians in Nigeria killed for their faith every day — at least one Christian every two hours.

Little has changed with the new year. In January 2023 alone, Muslims slaughtered approximately 60 Christians in Nigeria, raided churches, and kidnapped women and children.

Recently, however, in response to this unabated assault on Christians, on January 31, 2023, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), introduced a bipartisan resolution calling for not only the return of Nigeria to the State Department's CPC list, but for the appointment of a special ambassador to monitor the situation.

The eight-page resolution is worth reading in its entirety. Some of its most noteworthy revelations include the purely Islamic motives of those terrorizing Christians in Nigeria.

Although the Fulani — the one Muslim demographic most responsible for the butchery of Christians — are regularly portrayed in the West as impoverished and non-ideologically motivated herdsmen merely competing for scarce resources, the resolution correctly notes that the Fulani are working to reestablish a "caliphate."

This is no exaggeration. Just last summer, after Muslim Fulani massacred more than 40 Christians as they peacefully worshipped inside their church on Pentecost Sunday (June 5, 2022), the president of Ireland, Michael Higgins, issued a statement exonerating the Fulani and blaming the weather.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19402/genocide-in-nigeria