FIRST ON FOX – The killing, persecution and displacement of Christians in Nigeria is “relentless” and a “ticking time bomb”, according to a major new report.
A report by Open Doors International, a faith-based nonprofit organization that works to raise awareness of global persecution and mobilize Christian prayer, support, and action, said Christians were “deliberately targeted” as well as “Christian communities, their livelihoods, faith leaders, and places of worship.” Christians are becoming an “endangered species” there, the report says.
“Last year alone, more people were killed for their Christian faith in Nigeria than in every other place on Earth combined,” Ryan Brown, CEO of Open Doors US, told Fox News Digital. “Specifically, last year, 4,998 Christians were killed for their faith in Nigeria.
Testimonies recorded in an Open Doors International report titled “No Road Home” said the attacks on Christians were carried out by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, the Islamic State of West Africa, and Fulani extremists, who are primarily Muslim and originally nomadic.
“When the Fulani militants came to attack, we could hear them shouting, ‘Allah Akbar (Allah is great), we will destroy all Christians,'” one of the interviewees claimed in the report. Another resident added: “The Fulani started shooting and burning our houses. They burned our animals and corn.”
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Pastor Benjamin Barnabas leads a Christian internally displaced person ministry in a refugee camp in Nigeria. (Open Doors International)
Other interviewees reported that in some cases Christians were forced to convert to Islam in order to obtain food or maintain their livelihoods.
The African Religious Freedom Observatory reports that 16,769 Christians were killed between October 2019 and September 2023. In parts of Nigeria, where the situation remains largely unstable for people of all faiths, 6,235 Muslims were killed in the same period, about a third of the number of Christians. Up to 49% of Nigeria’s population is said to be Christian.
The report highlights how persecution has forced Christians in Nigeria to flee to other parts of the country and become internally displaced persons (IDPs), stating that “extreme violence in various parts of Nigeria over the past decade has resulted in mass displacement of Christian communities.”
Victims injured in a suicide bombing receive treatment at a hospital in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Sunday, June 30, 2024. A coordinated attack by suspected female suicide bombers in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Gwoza on Saturday left at least 18 people dead and 30 injured, including 19 seriously, local authorities said, raising security concerns in the region that has become the epicenter of an Islamist insurgency. (AP Photo/Joshua Omiri)
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The report added that Christians “are singled out for violence, face harsh living conditions and experience faith-based hardships throughout their displacement journeys.”
The situation is only getting worse. As of 2014, there were a total of 1.1 million internally displaced persons in Nigeria, the report claims. As of 2023, there will be 3.4 million people.
Christian pastor Benjamin Barnabas was walking through his farm with his family when Fulani insurgents allegedly “arrived with guns, machetes and sticks.” The pastor was beaten. “We lost everything we had. Our house and village were all burnt down and I had nothing left.”
He has been living as an internally displaced person in a small tent for five years. His mission, he says, is to pastor thousands in internally displaced persons camps. “We are displaced because of the violence. The news doesn’t care about it. We remain in the dark, forgotten and ignored.”
Women and children captured by Islamic extremists and rescued by the Nigerian military were seen arriving in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on Monday, May 20, 2024. West Africa’s armed forces said late Monday that hundreds of hostages, children whose mothers had been captured by Islamic extremists and forced into marriage in northeastern Nigeria, had been rescued from an important forest enclave and handed over to authorities. (AP Photo/Josie Olatunji)
“The rest of the world seems to be turning a blind eye,” Brown told Fox News Digital. “People aren’t talking about it. People aren’t doing anything about it because they don’t recognize the reality.”
The Open Doors report refers to Christian internally displaced persons in Nigeria, adding: “Displaced people in the North-Central region have been largely ignored. Their needs far exceed current funding commitments from international governments.”
These internally displaced persons also report “land grabbing, including by attackers who remain on the lands of the displaced. Their lands continue to be destroyed, occupied, and unprotected by security forces.”
The report claims that supporters of the Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram are particularly vindictive against Christians in Nigeria. “Boko Haram targets people who are working with the church. Maybe if you are in a position like a secretary or hold some position in the church, you are a target. In every community, Boko Haram has a list of people they are looking for,” one interviewee claims.
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People are evacuated after an attack by armed groups in Bokkos, Nigeria, on Tuesday. At least 140 people have been killed by gunmen who attacked a remote village in Nigeria’s north-central Plateau state, Nigerian officials and survivors say, in the latest such mass killings this year sparked by West Africa’s farmer-herder crisis. (AP)
The report claims that in Borno state government camps, “some people feel forced to convert to Islam or deliberately conceal their faith in order to obtain critical support.”
Additionally, “some educational settings were not accessible under Christian names.”
“We are deeply concerned about the high levels of violence in Nigeria, including inter-group violence and attacks by non-state armed groups against religious communities of all faiths and beliefs,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The spokesperson continued: “Boko Haram, ISIS-West Africa (ISIS-WA) and other armed groups continue to attack not only military targets but also population centers and religious targets, including churches and mosques, despite efforts by the Nigerian government to counter them.”
On Christmas Day 2023, an infant was injured in an attack at a nursing home in Bockos, Plateau State, Nigeria. (Reuters)
“Boko Haram and ISIS-WA have both been designated by the Secretary of State as organizations of particular religious freedom concern. In numerous meetings and visits this year, U.S. officials ranging from the Secretary of State to the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs to the Ambassador for Religious Freedom have called on the Nigerian government to step up its efforts to address the drivers of conflict in Nigeria, including crime, lack of justice, and lack of accountability for violence that affects members of religious communities of all faiths, including Christians.”
The State Department insists it is actively trying to turn the tide. “We also work with Nigeria’s security agencies to help Nigeria respond more effectively to threats, and support police and justice reform programs, peacebuilding, dialogue efforts, and development programs aimed at conflict prevention and mitigation.”
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Children are being taught by Pastor Barnabas at the Benue State Christian Refugee Camp. (Open Doors International)
But Nigeria is not the only country affected. “Across sub-Saharan Africa, violence and persecution are on the rise, which can take the form of physical and violent attacks,” added Ryan Brown. “Sometimes it takes the form of destruction of property, sometimes it takes the form of looting.”
“The problem is exacerbated by Christians being forced to flee their homes and living in internally displaced persons camps. Literally thousands of people are forced to live in these cramped and cramped conditions, with thousands living under tarpaulins with limited access to food and hygiene. In fact, we see literally thousands of people having to share just a few toilets in these camps, so the situation across Africa is dire, and without some kind of intervention, this trend will only get worse. ”
This week, South Africa’s most senior Jewish cleric had rare harsh words for the Pope and the Anglican Church Secretary for failing to help African Christian flocks. Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein issued a statement declaring, “They stand by passively as their fellow Christians in Africa are slaughtered by jihadist groups with direct ties to Israel’s enemies in Gaza and the West Bank, groups such as Boko Haram, ISIS, and al-Shabaab, which are ideologically aligned with Hamas.”
A Boko Haram flag flutters from an abandoned command post in the deserted Gamboru after Chadian forces drove it from the border town on February 4, 2015. (Photo by STEPHANE YAS/AFP via Getty Images)
Brown told Fox News Digital that positive change can come if the government and church community come together. “I think when we realize that and raise that awareness and stand in unity and unity with our brothers and sisters in Africa, it sends a loud message.”
“It can send a message that the world is watching other countries, the United Nations, or other agencies involved in international aid. It can also send a message that the protection of religious freedom needs to be considered in its strategies and plans. And perhaps most importantly, to our brothers and sisters in Africa, it sends a message that we see them and that they are not forgotten.”
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It has also been reported that Christian children are not immune to trauma. One parent interviewed for the Open Doors report explained, “Every time my children hear something, they panic, it causes trauma, and they hide. The fear of attack doesn’t stop, it actually increases.”
Fox News Digital sought comment from Nigeria for the second time this year, reaching out again to the embassy in the United States and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, but received no response.
